10:47 – The taxes are finished and in the mail, and Barbara and I are back to work on science kit stuff.
I just ran a bunch of labels for the 2-liter soda bottles we have sitting around in large trash bags. The labels read:
Untreated Well Water – Do not drink unless you first boil, chlorinate, or micro-filter. May be used for cooking if water is brought to a full boil. May be used for toilet flushing at three 2-liter bottles per flush.
At a guess, we might have 300 empty 2-liter bottles sitting around. Filled, those would give us 100 toilet flushes or, alternatively, 540 more liters of drinking water after treating them. (It’s 540 rather than 600 liters, because we’ll fill them to only 1.8 liters in case they freeze.) We drink the well water untreated, of course, but it’s one thing to drink well water fresh from the tap, and another to drink unchlorinated well water that’s been sitting in bottles for weeks, months, or even years. The well water tested coliform-free, but it does contain some bacteria that show up as a blue scum in the shower.
This is yet another example of a prep that costs little or nothing and doesn’t take much time. Everyone should be filling containers with water and storing them. Water outages are actually pretty common, and having lots of stored water can turn what would otherwise be a serious emergency into a minor inconvenience. My goal is to have a three-month supply stored for Barbara, Colin, and me. Nine gallons a day; four gallons each for Barbara and me, and a gallon for Colin. That totals 810 gallons, or about 3,200 liters. Call it 108 cubic feet, or a cubic space about 1.45 meters (4.75 feet) on a side.
Assuming 7′ ceilings in a basement (my basement) and about 50% space efficiency, that’s a little over 5′ square of floor space, probably closer to 6′ square to allow for shelving.
Wow.
Speaking of flushing, we recently replaced out toilet with a 2-stage deal. #1 uses half the water of #2, and nobody in my family ever uses the #2 flush. It’s that efficient. In addition to the “let it mellow” mantra, an efficient toilet is a fairly decent prep as well.
@JimL, does the toilet require water pressure on the inlet side to work properly?
Some of the low flow toilet use a jet from the inlet pressure to clear the trap….
See if it will flush itself when filled from a bucket.
nick
Don’t get me started on low flush toilets. When we moved into this house, we had three crappy low flush toilets. We had to replace one, so found a 1.6 gallon flush model that actually works. The old toilets are 1.6 gallon flush models that work out to be 3.2 gallon flush models at best. Although if one flush doesn’t work, it usually takes 3, 4 or 5 flushes. I’d replace the other two toilets with the same model, except nobody carries that model any more. Now they have 1.2 gallon flush toilets.
I’m not talking about storing bottles for 800+ gallons. I intend to build a concrete block cistern, coating the inside with epoxy paint and installing a floating lid.
lol! Half of all people could be carrying ‘gay’ genes.
The LBGTXYZCAIT community will tout this “science” forever. Exactly which gene is gay? lol
Is… is that a… a pun?
“… will tout this “science” forever.”
Same crowd will claim we’re all really gay, Jesus was gay, Shakespeare was gay, etc. And Beethoven was black (and gay), etc., ad infinitum, ad nauseum.
One small step for those libturd AG’s to jail us for being climate-change-deniers (like Holocaust deniers but worse) to jailing us for being everybody’s-gay-deniers.
@Nick – Good question. Will give it a shot.
@Dave – I avoided low-flush toilets for a long time as I heard about the problems with them. My younger sister has some horror stories. Then on an episode of “Ask This Old House” the plumber replaced a toilet for a homeowner & talked about it. He claimed that they were “better” now. So I replaced when the guts of my old 3.5 gallon unit died. I have to say that I’m very happy with how well it works. And I’ve had a measurable improvement in my water bill. ($10/quarter over 4 quarters, averaged being “measurable”).
The ignorant idiots that decreed the low flush toilet do not understand that neither the home or municipal sewer systems were designed for such a low volume of water to properly move solid waste down the sewer line.
This has created many jobs for plumbers and more business for Vactor Manufacturing: https://www.vactor.com/Default.aspx Our town now has 6 of their big trucks working every day to keep the sewers flowing.
Purely by chance our waste line layout has the toilets as the very last thing in the line. So all the other water use keeps our waste pipes clean (almost 40 years old). A couple of years ago our plumber did a free “colonoscopy” of our waste lines and could not believe how clean they were and then he remembered how our waste pipes were laid out.
BTW, the ping pong ball test for flush efficiency is bogus and proves nothing. They should use at least two large jars of chunky peanut butter and half a roll of toilet paper.
Here is a toilet tester doing his job:
https://www.facebook.com/Crazycatloversss/videos/1765772197042402/
How about flushing a yippy dog down the toilet to make sure it’s working efficiently? It’s not like yippy dogs serve any other purpose.
“It’s not like yippy dogs serve any other purpose.”
Oh come now! Of COURSE they do! They’re great cat treats and useful for training cats to stalk and murderize rodents and other such vermin.
A good low flow that actually clears the bowl will cost about $300. I’ve got 2 different ones, and they both cost over $300. They will flush with a bucket.
nick
” Just a good little boy, wouldn’t change if he could, fightin’ the system, runnin’ round in the hood….”
With apologies to the Dukes.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3537205/Protests-erupt-Chicago-police-officer-shoots-dead-16-year-old-black-teen-foot-chase-led-armed-confrontation.html
“Loury’s aunt, Karen Winters, said of the tragic situation; ‘Once again, we’re looking at environment, this community, how some of these young boys are just plagued with certain influences.’
She then added; ‘But not to this extent, by no means.’
The teenager’s mother, Tambrasha Hudson, claims her son did not even own a gun.
‘Everything they said on the news is not the truth. It is not the truth. It’s not the truth,’ said Hudson.
‘It’s sad! My baby was 16, not 30. My baby was 16! Sixteen!’ ”
nick
NB, NECK TATTOO of gang affiliation, FB posts with pistol.
O when all this rayciss hatred and bigotry gon STOP? The epidemic of rayciss po-leese murdering innocent black babies!
What’s sorta funny is the cops kill far more white peeps than black; black peeps kill each other. And white peeps. But all we hear about that stuff is……..crickets.
What’s not funny is that we seem to be running about 50-50 in righteous police shoots and outright cop brutality and murder, so the shoots are all lumped together without discrimination in the media and among the protesters.
In this case it would seem that Mr. RMG gangsta got what was coming to him, and if the cops didn’t get him, another gang eventually would.
I was just thinking about King Louis skeet shooting in History of the World, with the peasant flying through the air. “I *love* my people … drifting left.”
I wouldn’t mind shooting this kind of scum at a clays range. Bet I could go 100 for 100 with #4 buckshot.
Or is that a micro-aggression?
“What’s not funny is that we seem to be running about 50-50 in righteous police shoots and outright cop brutality and murder, so the shoots are all lumped together without discrimination in the media and among the protesters.”
I don’t know if it is that high, but is entirely too high. We need a lot more training for the Police. Range time, Shoot/No-Shoot simulators, Hand to Hand training, and much more, I am sure. Did I mention range time? With live ammo? Lots of ammo.
Ammo is expensive. I don’t know how bad it is nowadays, but the last time I was hanging out a lot with cops was 35 years ago, and back then they were lucky to fire 50 rounds once a year to qualify, and they did that on a standard range at known distances in broad daylight using only their strong hands. The average cop going through a funhouse is going to do really, really badly. Back then, I’d have guessed that the average cop would get killed by a bad-guy target before he shot any of the innocent-bystander targets. Nowadays, I suspect the average cop would go through shooting every target that popped up or swiveled around, regardless of whether it was a bad guy, an innocent bystander, or another cop. Just like real life now.
“We need a lot more training for the Police. Range time, Shoot/No-Shoot simulators, Hand to Hand training, and much more, I am sure. Did I mention range time? With live ammo? Lots of ammo.”
+1,000
With a caveat or two: they need emphasis on the shoot-don’t-shoot part of it, combined with alternatives to their default use of lethal force immediately. And they need to be told that no, they signed up for the gig, and maybe they DON’T get to go home unscathed at the end of their shifts. The corollary is that no, not everyone out here is their enemy, and they need to work on building positive relationships with their communities; get out of the fucking cruisers and back on combined foot-motor patrol beats: Community Policing, what happened to that? Where the cop on the beat is known by everyone and he/she knows them, too. Substations in the ‘hoods. Alternatives to gangsta bullshit and/or sitting at home in Mom’s Basement with the pixels 7×24.
But that ain’t gonna happen, none of it. They’ve become paramilitary arms of the ruling class/state just as in everyplace else over the centuries, and when the money runs out to pay them, they’ll either get out of that line of work or sell out to the highest bidders, just like any other armed gang.
“Or is that a micro-aggression?”
On many levels; I’m counting about five in that one post alone. You need to sign up for remedial sensitivity training at your local college or university, and frankly I wish you’d issued a trigger warning before posting that, because now I’m all weepy and upset and scared again.
Hey, bonus points for street melon head shots at long-distance! Zero that Ruger Precision Rifle! Whaddya like betta, .308 or 300 Winchester Magnum? Old school .30-06? What about optics? Got a spotter?
What label paper are you using and is it self adhering?
Range time- yes, make sure they can hit what they aim at.
Simulator- maybe. It only has shoot/no shoot and no other choices so it conditions them to use the gun. Also conditions shooting at ANYTHING in a hand.
Hand to hand- yes, they need more options, but video of cops beating someone with fists is as bad as with a stick so depts are reluctant.
They never want to go hands on, as it puts them in reach of a suspect and therefore they could get hurt. NONE of them want to get hurt. They’d rather shoot you than risk getting hurt if it comes to that.
nick
added- even the targets used in competition nowadays encourage shooting at anything in a hand, as the ‘no shoots’ are black silhouette of a spread finger palm out hand. Everything else is fair game.
Re: labels
Just the standard Maco clones of the Avery 5160 (3 column/10 row). They stick pretty well.
“It’s not like yippy dogs serve any other purpose.”
Oh come now! Of COURSE they do! They’re great cat treats and useful for training cats to stalk and murderize rodents and other such vermin.
Such hatred on this site. Is there no “safe space”, Dr. Bob.
I’m going to need ObolaCare therapy for decades. Charge the tax payer, please.
Re: yappy dogs
I consider little yappers an excellent prep, not to mention good companions. Most are as alert as any other dog, and dogs are essential early-warning systems. And a 10-pound dog eats a lot less than our 65-pound Border Collie, and will probably live and remain alert for years longer than a medium/large dog. Still, Colin eats/drinks only about a third of a person’s worth, so in a long-term emergency he’d be more than pulling his weight.
(There, MrAtoz, never say I didn’t help when you needed it…)
I feel better already. Now can I move in with you, Dr. Bob. Or is it strike two?
There are strikes? Is that a sane person’s version of a micro-aggression?
The Army uses the heck out of collapsible water bladders similar to these:
http://www.interstateproducts.com/water_bladders.htm
oh my, this can’t possibly end well
The dramatic moment Russian fighter jets ‘buzzed’ a US Navy warship in the Baltic Sea at a height of just 30 FEET in a ‘simulated attack’
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3538158/Russian-fighter-jets-aggressively-buzzed-Navy-warship-Baltic-height-just-30-FEET-defense-official-reveals.html
“This is the dramatic moment two Russian fighter planes buzzed a US warship sailing in the Baltic Sea last night.
The Russian Su-24 planes thundered over the USS Donald Cook at a height of just 30ft in what a military official branded the most ‘aggressive’ incident between Russia and the United States in years.
The ‘simulated attack’ maneuver saw the jets pass so close to the ocean that they created a ‘wake in the water’, the defense official said.
The shock move came as a Polish helicopter was taking off from the US Destroyer on Tuesday evening”
nick
Re: Labels.
Avery labels make me itch. 30 to a sheet (or 20, or 60, or whatever). They’re TOO MUCH WORK to apply.
Have you considered a thermal label printer setup? I print direct thermal labels (suitable for mailing labels, non-permanent barcodes, etc.) for between 0.3 and 0.6 cents/label. For things that require GOOD labels (withstand mild acids, liquids, soaps, etc.), a thermal transfer setup comes in at about a penny/label at the low end to 2-3 cents at the high end.
But the really compelling reason to use them is that they come on a strip that is MUCH easier to use when applying labels to items. I like Zebra as much as I used to like HP, but there are many suppliers out there.
re “the thin blue line” and their “unfortunate” tendency to get trigger happy, just remove their effective immunity from prosecution and lawsuits. They’ll learn to control themselves, and they’ll cough up the money to buy their own ammo, or they’ll be jailed and broke.
Of course, much of the effective immunity from prosecution is because the DAs refuse to prosecute, or to effectively prosecute. I’ve thought for years that any US citizen should have standing to bring prosecution for violation of any law or regulation. Not specific to police “immunity”, it would be a good way to thin out the millions of laws and tens of millions of regulations on the books.
I like my Dymo label printer. They seem to stick for a long time. I used a sharpie on a few to label boxes several years ago. Quicker than using the PC. But… it’s a thermal printer. The printers that print your receipt at the grocery store are thermal and … the printing fades out after a few years.
Or after a month of Texas summer. 🙂
“oh my, this can’t possibly end well”
I dunno, I wouldn’t worry too much; we’ve played these games with them for at least as long as I’ve been alive. Keeps us and them on our toes, great fun for pilots and crews. Even if there was a crash or an “accidental” ordnance discharge, I doubt we’d come to nuclear or even conventional blows over it. Saner heads would prevail, and when I say that, I mean theirs, not ours. Ours are full-blown batshit-psycho maniacs and lunatics.
In re: security dawgs: sooner or later the third in our succession of long-haired and large golden retrievers will pass on to canine paradise somewhere, so I’d be looking for a smaller short-haired dog who’d be a good alarm system, but I refuse to consider chihuahuas and pugs and suchlike. It’s gotta LOOK like a damn dog.
Um, mine is some sort of chihuahua mix mutt, and effectively looks like a dachshund/ chihuahua cross. He gets compliments at the park from random strangers for how handsome he is. (has long snout,upright but folded ears, low slung but not belly dragging, front legs paws and chest like a doxy…)
Eats 1 cup dry food a day, has small poops.
Barks like a much bigger dog, no yipping here. Actually sounds vicious. Very well behaved. Loves to run. Smart. Can identify and retrieve a dozen different toys with verbal commands, knows all the main dog handling commands verbally and with hand signs. The vet lists him as a ‘terrier mix.’ Knows his place in the pack.
nick
Re thermal labels.
The direct thermal are CHEAP to use. That’s one of the reasons I mentioned it in the first place.
The fading is why I mentioned the thermal transfer labels. (Or did I? I did.) They use a wax or resin ribbon to print to the label. They do NOT fade out after 2 years of storage, some in bright, sunlit areas. And the cost (after initial hardware) is competitive (usually cheaper with the right suppliers) with laser labels. My 9-5 has several applications that use the thermal transfer labels. My side job uses mainly direct-thermal.
And the Zebra setup is a lot cheaper to operate than the Dymo setup. I have both. The Zebra required me to write some custom software to use. But I’m the ONLY user of the software, so it does EXACTLY what I want it to do. The Dymo has support from other software vendors, and is the right tool for some jobs. I like it as well.
I see the breakout differently than OFD. Of all the police shootings in the news, Walter Scott’s case jumps out as murder. There are other cases that are very troubling such as the death of Eric Garner and the shooting of the kid in Cleveland who was brandishing an Airsoft gun. Those cases may both be murder as well, but the some of the responsibility rests with the deceased and other government employees. Eric Garner’s death may be due to excessive use of force, but he appears to have been resisting arrest, and the officer was probably using excessive force, why didn’t either of the two sergeants on scene intervene? The kid in Cleveland was brandishing a pellet gun without the bright orange indicator that it was a toy, and the 911 caller reported it, but that fact was not communicated to the officer. Also the officer in the Cleveland shooting should never have been hired because he was fired from another Ohio Police Department for mental health issues.
My doxy runs like a sumbitch. Affectionate as heck, but doesn’t take fast to strangers. I’m one of those weirdos that lets him sleep in the bed. He keeps our feet warm on those freezing cold Vegas Winter nights.
Yeah, I’ll be looking at various terrier breeds; whichever it is has to also get along with three cats, but they’re very used to dogs living with them, so I don’t anticipate a problem.
I love American Pit Bull Terriers and my next-younger brother and I raised a litter or two of them over thirty years ago down in MA. But asshole owners have given them a bad rap and we probably shouldn’t have one in this ‘hood. I see the typical asshole owners up the road closer to the “city” have several on leashes, probably mixed-breed, too; ours were purebred with papers. Got along great with cats, too. And God help the poor stupid bastard who would climb in through a window at 03:00 and be a threat to their meal ticket.
So maybe some other type of terrier, we’ll see.
Interesting that you should mention that. As a guy who hasn’t fired a gun since Boy Scouts, I’m concluding that we need one or more guns. So I realized the first thing I need to do is take an NRA approved safety course. The most active instructor in the area is probably the exception that proves the rule about cops. His kids were in my Boy Scout troop, so I know he’s a retired police officer, and he has to be 25 years older than I am. If he can fire a 12 gauge shotgun at his age, maybe I should consider hiring him as a personal trainer instead of a gun trainer.
“……If you are the wild-eyed guy at the end of the block in BDUs sitting atop a mound of silver coins, shaking his fist at the sky, and cursing ZOG ad infinitum, congratulations, you are now That Guy, and the whole neighborhood will fight for the chance to rat you out when the balloon goes up….”
https://westernrifleshooters.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/kwm3lu7.jpg
OPSEC, in a word. And for you squids out there, loose lips sink ships, etc.
“…If he can fire a 12 gauge shotgun at his age, maybe I should consider hiring him as a personal trainer instead of a gun trainer.”
Why not both?
As for “…we need one or more guns.”
Look at your potential threat scenario where you live. And who lives WITH you there. How far away are neighbors? What is your house built from? Do you and yours travel about the area a lot and think you might need EDC self-defense protection? Talk to that retired cop/instructor, see what he says.
The NRA classes cover basic pistol, rifle and shotgun and may be scheduled regularly at one or more of your local ranges or gun clubs. We get them up here, but not that often, and I wanna get Mrs. OFD to them ASAP, but it’s tough figuring it out with her schedule. She at least is a good league ahead of the usual MSM imbeciles on nomenclature and safety already, though.
Around here, little yappy dogs are the perfect bait for fishing for alligators. Run a decent sized hook through the gut and troll slowly.
“… the perfect bait for fishing for alligators.”
Oh my. You wicked, wicked person! But I approve!!!
And at least the gators have a sporting chance with the dogs; not so much with the pythons….
WRT Russian planes simulating an attack on a U.S. Navy Vessel, there was a time not that long ago that those jets would have been splashed and we would have never known about it. During my submarine days we took care of business with provocative Russian submarines and surface craft. There was none of this quivering like a scared squirrel (I was going to say little girl). Sorry I cannot give you the details, but they got the message and the crews got some time in port to repair their vessels. There is a lot more to the “silent service” than you will ever know or I can ever tell.
Obuttwad is a traitor, flat out, no doubt.
Obuttsuck could be a traitor to the US only if he were a US citizen. He is, instead, a foreigner here under false pretenses, quite likely serving the interests of his native country.
“Sorry I cannot give you the details, but they got the message and the crews got some time in port to repair their vessels.”
That’s OK, Mr. DadCooks, we get your drift, haw, haw, get it? Mr. SteveF loves these!
“Obuttwad is a traitor, flat out, no doubt.”
True. As is Cankles, Larry Klinton, both Bush crime families, and LBJ.
“… He is, instead, a foreigner here under false pretenses…”
I don’t believe that; I think he’s probably a citizen, and he lied to the admissions drones at Columbia to get special treatment status as an “international student” and has had to lie about it since. His records there are also still MIA. But if you want some odd family history, check out Billy Jeff and Roger Clinton’s, their mom being the town pumping station, and their real dad a doctor at the hospital where she worked. So they’re actual brothers, not half-brothers. Both whoring, pervert, drug addict scumbags, too.
A good low flow that actually clears the bowl will cost about $300. I’ve got 2 different ones, and they both cost over $300. They will flush with a bucket.
We recently replaced two American Standard 1.6 gallon models with Toto 1.28 gallon models. The Totos are much better. The American Standard ones clogged regularly. The Toto’s have not clogged once. They use gravity only, so we could fill them with river water and they’ll work. They cost us $192/each from Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/CST244EF-01-Entrada-Toilet-2-Piece/dp/B00H2Y52A0?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00
Rick in Portland
re Obuttboy, birth certificate or it didn’t happen. No, what was released back in 2008 wasn’t a birth cert.
“…re Obuttboy, birth certificate or it didn’t happen. No, what was released back in 2008 wasn’t a birth cert.”
Oh my. A “birther.” Probably rayciss, too. So many micro-aggressions.
Know what? I bet he has a genuine birth certificate somewhere but he’s just enjoying himself pissing people off, between that and the Columbia records and who his real dad was. Larry Klinton acts the same way, very dodgy and smirky about his parentage and drug history and serial adultery and raping. They like to rub it in our faces that they get away, literally, with murder. LBJ was also like that.
But I say, let’s waterboard them, get some straight answers, along with Dick Cheney and Shrub.
I have had trouble with the Avery labels falling off after a year or so. Unless I supplement with gorilla glue or equiv.
I use the Maco equivalents.
I figure the dildo was probably born in Hawaii but the birth cert says “father unknown” or something along those lines. Regardless, the courts seriously failed when the question of the turd’s eligibility was raised and they collectively said Fuck You.
True, all that. And not much effort expended to ascertain the birth stuff and who the dad was, which ought to tell us something about how these things get arranged, in direct contravention for a very long time now of our so-called “democratic process,” elections, ballots and voting.
To reinforce that this year, we have the Stupid Half of the Party nakedly just writing off their own voters’ votes in Colorado and North Carolina. I don’t know how much more blatant it can be after that. This is getting to be more and more like the old Soviet Union or Cuba or the Chicoms in that regard. Pretty soon they’ll pick somebody, install them, and then tell the world he or she won with 99% of the vote and that everybody voted. And we have more than enough dumbo cretins in this country alone who’d believe them.
In Choosers of the Slain, a pretty good novel about a stealth destroyer (similar to one about to be joining the USN) they get buzzed by some jets when doing a chopper recovery. After warning the jets off, and their announced intention to buzz again, she fires chaff launcher just as they pass by, nearly splashing one that ingests a chaff clump. I wonder if they could do something like that….
I’m on Episode 9 of the first season of “Narcos” on Netflix and the first scene just gave me the biggest laugh I’ve had all month. The narrator/main protagonist does something in traffic and the expression on his wife’s face just about put me on the floor here.
Of course if I saw one of our stealth destroyers splashing buzzing jets from whatever country, I would also have a big laugh.
I bet Mr. DadCooks has stories of the undersea equivalent. But you won’t get me inside a sub for love or money in a million years. Or a tank for that matter. I’ll take my chances outside on the blessed earth.
But I say, let’s waterboard them, get some straight answers, along with Dick Cheney and Shrub.
Cheney reminds me of the Nazi in Raiders of the Lost Ark. He’s like a brother to me.
http://www.barnhardt.biz/2016/04/13/god-knows-i-tried/
Wow. She’s been saying this as long as I have, at least as long as I have. It is what it is.
And she did this talk four years ago. After which it was too late.
And it’s too late now.
And Ted Cruz tried to outlaw dildos here in The Great State of Texas in 2007:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/04/ted-cruz-dildo-ban-sex-devices-texas
“The brief by Cruz’s office compared the use of sex toys to “hiring a willing prostitute or engaging in consensual bigamy,” and it equated advertising these products with the commercial promotion of prostitution.”
Have I ever mentioned that I hate lawyers? Why can’t you self righteous ignoramuses stay out of people’s bedrooms? This is not what Jesus sacrificed himself on the cross for.
“2016: The Year Americans Found Out Their Elections Are Rigged”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-04-13/2016-year-americans-found-out-their-elections-are-rigged
This quiz is interesting.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/making-sense/do-you-live-in-a-bubble-a-quiz-2/
I scored 29.
nick
The always interesting Bill Whittle on ‘cultural appropriation.’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMYRYKvAEaY&feature=youtu.be
n
“This quiz is interesting.”
I scored a 50.
Bill Whittle; an NRO, Fox Nooz and Tea Party right-winger, eh? Well, it was pretty funny and I’ll let him slide ’cause he worked for The Star Hustler, the late Jack Horkheimer, who was a gas.
I note, however, that his list of Cock-a-Soid accomplishments was, with the exception of the very late John Skelton, all science and technology stuff. The SJW’s and BLM cretins are soreheads ’cause we steal their dreadlocks and music. There ain’t much in the way of science and technology to steal from them. This also goes for the musloid hordes, nothing much to steal, unless you dig algebra. Which I don’t.
I scored 29
I scored 53.
I scored a 50
I’m older.
Man accidentally ‘deletes his entire company’ with one line of bad code
Several of us recognize just what a tool this Marco Marsala is — Lynn mentions his multiple offline backup media, Brad and I do this sort of scripting as part of our jobs, and OFD did this sort of thing as his job.
I was amused by the article author’s pissy “Many of the responses to Mr Marsala’s problem weren’t especially helpful”. Well, no, Marco Marsala, imbecile extraordinaire, trashed his (and his customers’) data irretrievably. There is essentially no recovery from this error. “Get a lawyer” was the most on-point advice.
I can’t believe that rm *.* /f <– psuedo as I don't even want to type that anywhere!
is still wiping people out. This quote nailed it: “This is not bad luck: it's astonishingly bad design reinforced by complete carelessness.”
This guy was running a hosting co? Oh my.
nick
WRT chaff: oh yes, the submarines have an underwater equivalent and surface and air equivalents that are designed to ruin some peoples day.
IIRC, in “The Hunt for Red October” there is a “story” about how an active sonar pulse from the Dallas was used to scare the crap out of a Russian sub that had no idea they were there. It works on surface ships too. The amount of energy that sonar can put into the water is significant (water will boil along the beam and fish will die) and the “target” will feel it and many ear drums will not work for days (especially the “targets” sonar operators who are listening).
Imagine sitting in a steel drum being hit by sledge hammers over and over again.
Oh, and those sonar pulses use a lot of power so the EPCP (electric plant control panel, me) and RPCP (reactor plant control panel) Operators have to coordinate with the Sonar Room to give them the power (LOTS) they need and still keep everything else on line. Finally the SPCP (steam plant control panel, throttleman), EPCP, and RCPC Operators have to be alert for the Flank Bell that will be immediately following so we can haul ass outa there. It’s a great adrenaline rush. It’s nice to know you have the speed, maneuverability, and countermeasures to get you home.
Obuttwad doesn’t have the qualifications to join the Cub Scouts. There is no way he could pass security clearance review required of every person in the military. He is not worthy or qualified for the title of Commander In Chief. I served when Jimmy Carter was in office. He was not a great president, but at least he was qualified (graduate of the Naval Academy, and a Nuclear Qualified Submarine Officer).
“…is still wiping people out.”
I wouldn’t mind using that line at a couple of companies where I worked before, but then again it would hurt a bunch of regular drones who had nothing to do with messing me over.
“It’s a great adrenaline rush.”
The need for which pretty much left me about thirty years ago when I got outta the cop jobs finally.
“There is no way he could pass security clearance review required of every person in the military.”
There is one rule for them and one for us.
“He was not a great president…”
No, but he wasn’t a real bad one, either like the rest of them in our time. Far as I know, he was not a thief, pervert, drug addict and dealer, serial rapist, or traitor. My CINCS were Nixon and Ford. Nixon had us on worldwide alert during the ’73 Arab-Israeli “crisis,” and we had to hustle on up to the radar domes out there in Marin County and protect them from PLO, SLA, and other commie riff-raff who might climb the mountain and go through the chain link fence topped with razor concertina and all the alarms to come up against our M16s and my M60.
That was a sweet little PCS gig; the Security Police barracks was off by itself on the edge of the mountain and my (private) room faced the mountains in the distant north and the valley down below with Corte Madera and San Anselmo. We’d sit on the ledge outside our windows and smoke doobies and drink wine while listening to what is now considered “classic rock” and old-school Motown. I was the same height I am now and weighed 215 and used to hike up and down and all over that mountain (Mt. Tamalpais) and the surrounding woods and hills several times a week. Or hike on down the other side into Mill Valley and visit the hippies and head shops. The front of the barracks looked down onto San Francisco, Berkeley and Oakland, and in the mornings it would all be covered by a sea of clouds with only the tip of the TransAmerica building poking up through them. Out the other end of the site you could look out to the Farallon Islands, and I used to hike up and down that side to Stinson Beach and Muir Beach.
I did that gig for over a year and then Uncle figured I needed to stack more time in SEA.
Blackadder on politicians:
n
They have hired my replacement. He will start on April 26, 2016 (yes, Tuesday). My final day in the office will be July 15, 2016 (maybe a couple of days later if I take any vacation). This will allow for some overlap so that I can train the individual.
My last official day will be August 1, 2016 as the time between July 15 and August 1 will be vacation time. Need to do that to play games with health insurance. Being on the payroll even one day in the month gets me health insurance coverage for the entire month. Since I have met my maximum out of pocket for the year anything I have done now is at zero cost to myself.
Odd having to interview, and then decide on your replacement. I have written about 150 pages of documentation covering the major aspects of the job. The finer details will be left to the individual to learn.
I am afraid this person is going to struggle as 95% of my job is coding. Several applications custom built by myself. Thus a lot of knowledge in my head that will be difficult to pass on to someone else. I told the boss I would come back occasionally as a consultant if necessary at $100.00 an hour portal to portal with no fractional hour billing. He said that was expensive. I said yes, I know. You need to really need me before I will consider coming back and I don’t want to come back. Money has a way of making that happen.
It’s been a good ride, almost 15 years. Longest I have stayed at any job. Low pressure, no nights or weekends, very little is an emergency. Jack of all trades, master of none. Took the organization from the dark ages of paper records into a fairly good system of online information. Improved many processes, reduced costs, reduced time for operational tasks, created much new information that is stored on members, and made life easier for the staff.
It will be difficult turning all that code over to someone else. Actually a little scary to pass into another phase of life. Enough money to live comfortably but not extravagant, enough to take a few trips so that is not a worry. It is the realization that you are no longer needed and have to find something else to do to be useful. May substitute at the school, may volunteer at a senior center to help the old farts with technology, may get another part time job (besides my broadcasting job) taking school photographs for a single school. I sure as hell don’t want to sit around on my spreading ass.
I’m shocked that someone did rm -rf / and was stupid enough to admit it in public. I once worked with a guy who in the 1980s typed FORMAT C: and hit the Enter key. While looking at the Press Any Key to continue prompt he realized the error of his ways. He did the three fingered salute only to find that was considered a key.
Congrats, Mr. Ray. Yeah, the key is to stay busy and interested in stuff. You ought not to have any problems with either of those keys.
I’m collecting SS now, pitiful pittance though it is, but it’s helped out already here at critical moments a couple of times, so I guess I’m considered “retired” or semi-retired or whatever. But there is no shortage of stuff to do; I have a list for the house alone that is five pages long and likely to keep us busy until we croak.
Off shortly to the vets group to see who’s around and what they’re up to; our remaining jarhead almost always has a full plate of family horrors to tell us about, and guys should be starting to come back from their winter haunts in Floriduh now.
Dear StackOverflow,
Someone — not me! — made a mistake in writing a script and ended up doing “rm -rf /”. Is there any way that I — I mean, that other person, who isn’t me — can fix it?
Sincerely,
A guy who would never do something like that
PS: The backup drive was mounted, so it was deleted, too. Can I sue the manufacturer?
I’m collecting SS now, pitiful pittance though it is
I plan to hold out until I am 70 so that I can get the maximum amount. Rate increases about 8% a year which is a fairly good return on investment. It is a crap shoot as to whether I will be around to collect. If it works out correctly I would get about $3300 a month, wife would draw against mine (original amount at 65) which would be about $1100 a month. So between the two of us that would be $4400 a month. Again, a crap shoot as we are both playing the odds.
Going to live off taxed savings for 5 years thus having an income below the poverty level as far as the IRS is concerned. This will allow my wife to qualify for the maximum subsidy on the health exchange. Of course that is also a crap shoot depending who gets elected.
I can live on $2K a month if I had to do so. But will instead be living on about $4K a month which will allow us to take some trips that we want to take. That amount is actually slightly higher than what I am living on now. Have to use that amount, or maybe a little more, to pull down investments.
When I get to 70.5 it will become even more interesting as my untaxed savings will now have to drawn down at a mandatory rate as set by the IRS. That will up my income to over $7K a month. At my current life style it will be difficult to spend. Unless of course my or my wife’s health tanks. Or Bernie Sander gets elected and decides I worked too hard for my money and some lazy welfare queen is more deserving.
Be of good cheer, Ray. With any luck the $15/hr minimum wage will spread, then cause (totally unforeseeable) price inflation, leading to further minimum wage increase, leading to more price inflation. Even without confiscation, your $7k/month may be under $1k in today’s dollars.
Even without confiscation, your $7k/month may be under $1k in today’s dollars.
That is one of my fears. There is nothing I can do about it so I have to plan on what I know now. I can always go on the government dole as would millions of others that would be in worse shape than I.
$100 an hour is not high for a good IT consultant. (IMHO).
Backup drive was mounted.
Where are the others? Where are the hard backups? (tape DVD etc). Where is the network and cloud? Belt, suspenders, two more belts and another pair of suspenders. Idiot.
I scored 4.
Oh my!
$100 an hour is not high for a good IT consultant. (IMHO).
Maybe I am no damn good unlike the likes of OFD who can sport many acronyms.
Just to be clear, when OFD writes “WTF, MOFO”, those aren’t acronyms for his technical certifications.
I’m no where near a skilled IT guy and I get 120/hr with a 4hr minimum to be ‘remote hands.’
I’ll do it for half that if it’s local and I can schedule the time.
I’d think you would be worth more ray, and I’d want some minimums. In fact, I’d just give them a day rate and a half day rate for onsite work. Half day minimum for you to leave the house, full day ends after 10 hrs, no matter what. Half day for any remote work at all.
You have to consider travel time and enough to cover your self employment taxes.
nick
I scored something like a 21, or maybe it was a 23. Mainly, I don’t know anything about all the TV shows and most of the movies they mentioned – wouldn’t even if I still lived there. I have other, equally non-productive ways to waste time.
I give up on the son’s taxes. I was using an online preparation service, but there are new forms to file. Used to be, you listed your foreign income on a 2555EZ, but now apparently it’s one form per employer. Plus there’s a new form to file, explaining why you don’t have Obamacare, and still shouldn’t have to pay the penalty. While the online service has these forms, I am discovering them hit-and-miss, and I have no idea what other essential forms I am missing.
So it’s off to a local tax consultant, who is also an Enrolled Agent, which I hope means that she actually has a clue. $375 bucks, that’s how complicated it’s going to be, for a kid who owes no taxes and has nothing complicated. Some places wanted twice that.
Just to be clear, when OFD writes “WTF, MOFO”, those aren’t acronyms for his technical certifications.
Oh, I see. I thought those were some super secret Redhat abbreviations. 🙂
Almost made me feel inadequate.
57. Now I feel ashamed. I’m over it. I was raised w/ a blue collar, and I’m proud of it.
$100/hr for IT is cheap. My former employer charged $140/hr for me (I never saw it), and I currently pay anywhere from $125 to $250/hr for good IT help. And that’s cheap (to me) because it takes me a LOT longer to do things I don’t understand than the experts. I’m not paying for their time. I’m paying for NOT spending my time. I do the things I know and pay others to do the things I don’t know.
So, Mr. Ray, I would say the $100 is pretty darned cheap. It will cost them a lot more to NOT call you.
Former (or soon-to-be former) employers never see it that way, JimL. They see that it’s a lot higher than the nominal hourly rate they were paying the former employee, and think “why should I have to pay more than that?”
Ray, if you can justify it, keep copies of all of the procedures you wrote. Unless it would violate employment terms, make copies of the thousand scripts and anything else that makes things work or shows how things work. If possible, get sign-off from a manager that it’s ok for you to have copies, though that’s problematic. Then, six months after you leave and something’s come crashing down, you can bring out the instructions or the script that worked when you left and either charge directly for it or use it to get you started on fixing the problem.
One thing to beware is free tech support calls after you leave. I don’t have any useful advice there — you don’t want to be a jerk but you don’t want to get taken advantage of, either. I am not able to successfully navigate that tightrope walk. (To be sure, I don’t care about being a jerk, but I don’t want to alienate potentially paying clients.)
@Ray, @SteveF’s recommendation is spot on. This new guy could so hose your code that you would not recognize it. It would be good if you could create a backup that is stored in the company’s archives. You say they have no digital archives (subtle difference from a backup), then they are dumber than a box of rocks.
20+ years ago when I was laid off, it took only a day before I got a panicked phone call from my former employer asking if I could come back as an independent contractor. I said sure, $170.00/hour portal to portal (90 minute commute each way). He said WHAT! He forgot I knew what they charged the government for me, $169.00/hour. That afternoon I got an email with an attached contract that met my terms and a request to start the next day. Spent 3-months working full time to fix what they needed fixed. Then was on call at a nice daily rate and $170.00 base per call or email communication. That went on for another 6-months. My taxes were a bitch for two years.
BTW, I was laid off for 4 reasons 1) the gooberment no longer gave the contractors points for Veterans, 2) I didn’t have a degree in Engineering (my Navy experience was considered an Engineering Degree by the DOE was I was hired in 1979, I supervised a department of engineers with degrees), 3) I was over 45-years old, and finally 4) I was male. Yes, 1,400 of us filed a discrimination suit and got nowhere (long story).
@Ray, WRT techsupport calls, I don’t really want to go out to site, so if I can solve the issue by talking, in less than 1/2 hour, and I can do it when I have the time to take the call (ie, not during my daughter’s dance class) I’ll do it gratis. I figure it keeps me as the ‘expert’ and go to guy, it makes me the hero instead of an extortionist, and it’s easier to nip a problem in the bud than clean up the mess later.
If I need to see the problem, or do a site visit, I charge a half day just to show up.
One thing you might talk to them about is buying 4 service calls in advance. I have a customer that finds it much easier to get a check for $2500 cleared once than 600 checks 4 times a year. (I still try to triage and not charge if a quick phone call gets them back up.) Make sure that unused half days expire in a year.
You can sell it as “hey we think everything will go smoothly, but just in case, why don’t we consider me for quarterly half day visits over the next year?” Then if they need you, there isn’t any question about how to pay you, where the funds come from, tax numbers, EEOC statements, etc. Think of it as a prepaid retainer, with very short limits.
nick
Don’t get poor ol’ OFD started on corporate and IT acronyms; I HATE them. But I won’t spell out stuff like RHEL and SJW and BLM when we here on this august board all know what they mean.
In the old days back at EDS, me and another IT drone were thinking about putting together a glossary for all their fucking acronyms and buzzwords, but never got around to it before they were bought out and everyone scattered to the four winds, several former teammates out of IT for good, too.
It would be good if you could create a backup that is stored in the company’s archives.
There is an archiving system installed that maintains copies of all the files including changed files. It is possible to go back one year and recover a file even if that file has changed 100 times. Even deleted files are maintained by the archiving system.
if you can justify it, keep copies of all of the procedures you wrote.
Have already done so. Copy is sitting here on my desk in a thumb drive.
This new guy could so hose your code that you would not recognize it
Yes, he could. Some of the code is fairly complicated, especially if you don’t fully understand what is being accomplished and the format of the data involved.
One thing you might talk to them about is buying 4 service calls in advance.
Interesting idea but they would never go for it.
One thing to beware is free tech support calls after you leave
I have already stated that I will not do support over the phone or by email. Too much can get lost in the communication. Remote access is out of the question for some security reasons and caps on my broadband.
it makes me the hero instead of an extortionist
I have no interest in being neither. When I leave the organization I want to leave for good as far as the daily job is concerned. I still want to go to their convention to take pictures. I will do that at no charge as long as they pay my expenses. A free trip, a few free meals, and I enjoy doing the pictures. Money is not a factor.
Don’t get poor ol’ OFD started on corporate and IT acronyms
They don’t hold a candle to military and government acronyms.
“They don’t hold a candle to military and government acronyms.”
They held more than a candle back at EDS, more like a FLASHLIGHT, ’cause many of the top dawgs and middle manglers were ex-military and ex-gummint. It was ridiculous, and then they really got going with the corporate buzzwords and phrases.
RHEL – Really hot equine love
Just throw ’em back to ’em.
They held more than a candle back at EDS
Having been an employee of EDS (San Antonio office) from January 1980 to December 1980. Made many a flight on Southwest between SA and Love Field. One trip I sat next the Ross himself. He was an expert on everything and a complete jerk. But I digress.
Anyway, that office did not suffer from the offerings of IBM with all their CICS, VTAM, IEBXXXXX error codes, RACF and other manner of acronyms. So in my experience the military still wins.
Ah yes, Chairman Ross, or as he would probably like to be called, General Perot. Here he is with the Father of Our Country:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Perot#/media/File:Ross_Perot_Allan_Warren.jpg
A typical runty, egotistical, monomanical little froggy midget. A 20th-C Napoleon wannabe. He’d sold out of EDS by the time I started working there, with the Wireless Division in Waltham, MA, where I slaved like a navvy for nearly four years, mostly on the overnight shifts. VAX/VMS, OpenVMS, UNIX, and then WindowsNT. Many DEC refugees there, like me. I was working there when I first talked to, and then met, my current (and last) wife. Left there in ’98 just before it all collapsed and moved to Vermont and got remarried.
He’d sold out of EDS by the time I started working there
When I worked there things were different than when you worked there. Very strict dress code indeed. But in exchange you got excellent benefits. EDS was self insured for health insurance, copay was $5, maximum out of pocket was $200. In other words almost zero healthcare costs.
Finish a project under budget and everyone shared in the excess budgeted amount. Sort of a rip off for the customer but the customer had signed a fixed cost agreement. Gave motivation for everyone to finish a project before a deadline and under budget.
HQ in Dallas was nice. Indoor pool and fully equipped gym. Also had a golf course although I don’t remember if it was 9 or 18 holes. Many a deal was struck on that golf course. Cafeteria was dirt cheap and the food was good.
What killed the SA office was the two clowns that retired from the USAF and knew nothing about managing an office. Too much ego and not enough work from management down to the workers. Ross himself came down, gathered everyone in the main room with the exception of the two clowns. Told everyone they could move to Dallas or resign he was firing Frank and Dick and closing the office. I had already left for different pastures and was glad I did.
Not much of a dress code in Maffachufetts when I was there; biz casual, mostly, suits for the manglers; nights and weekends and they didn’t care what we wore. We heard that guys who went down to Plano for whatever had to go in wearing ties, though, preferably red ones. That was the last job I got boner checks, too, a grand at a time, for projects we did, like me helping to set up their first-ever firewall on NT, lol. (CheckPoint). Also the last place that I worked where they sent us to training regularly, at Global Knowledge. And paid for our lunches. All that chit is long gone now. We are expected to train on our own time and our own dime.
‘Someone — not me! — made a mistake in writing a script and ended up doing “rm -rf /”. Is there any way that I — I mean, that other person, who isn’t me — can fix it?’
See what happens when you use UNIX (the operating system with no balls.)
“Not much of a dress code in Maffachufetts when I was there; biz casual, mostly, suits for the manglers;”
I usually went to work in jeans, sneakers/cowboy boots and un-ironed shirts. A cow-orker’s husband worked for Oracle and said visitors from the States had to buy/hire a suit when they came here. Evil Doers in Suits also were pretty strict about attire.
I also think Ray is underquoting at $100 an hour. I’d ask for at least $250, if only to keep them off my back. Got a phone call from work at 4.20 AM one Saturday morning in 1986. One of the mainframes wouldn’t complete Deadstart and the usual guy was on the phone. Got five hours at double time for that, but it wrecked my Saturday.