10:00 – It was 34.8F (1.5C) when I took Colin out this morning, very gray and with a light drizzle that’s to turn to snow later. Barbara is heading down to Winston shortly, where she’ll spend the night with Frances and Al and then drive back up to Sparta tomorrow afternoon. Colin and I are getting ready to have wild women and parties as soon as she leaves.
Barbara sent me a link Saturday to a PA novel that was free for the download through yesterday. I’d never heard of the author or the series, but I downloaded it just to take a look. I finally got around to looking at it last night. Very odd. It’s written in the first-person present, and reads like it was written by a 30-ish stay-at-home military wife with four kids who’s a huge fan of The Walking Dead. It turns out that’s just what it is. Her main characters are thinly-disguised variations of the main cast in TWD, and there are zombies all over the place. Not my cup of tea, but it and the rest of the series get very good reviews if that’s your kind of thing.
Interesting headline in the morning paper: “Evacuation Lifted for 200K Californians: Dam is repaired, but officials say fix may not hold” I believe that if I lived downstream of the tallest dam in the US, with more than a cubic mile of water behind it, I’d think twice about returning home after reading that headline.
I’ve seen remarkably little in the MSM about the disruption that was caused by this evacuation. I did get email from one reader who evacuated. He said things were an unmitigated fustercluck. Roads and bridges bottlenecked or completely blocked by cars that were broken down or out of gas, two-hour lines at gas stations that still had gas, which wasn’t many of them, and a trip to a friend’s home that would ordinarily have taken him 45 minutes that ended up taking eight hours.
There are a lot of takeaways here, but the biggest to my way of thinking is that it’s really, really important to keep your gas tank as full as possible. For some reason, most people let their gas tanks get down to a quarter or less before they refuel, and more than a few wait until they’re running on fumes. That makes no sense to me, given that it takes only a couple of minutes to stop at a gas station and fill up.
My 1993 Isuzu Trooper SUV has a 22.5-gallon gas tank and averages about 16 MPG real-world, for a 360-mile range. When the trip odometer gets up to 50 miles, I start thinking about filling the tank. If it gets to 100 miles, I’ll make a special trip to fill it.
Lori, our USPS carrier, drives a RHD Jeep that looks a lot like the CJ-7 I used to have. I asked her one time how much gasoline she goes through driving her stop-and-go postal route. She goes through about two-thirds of a tank per day, so she stops at the gas station every day after she finishes her route. Her Jeep is also her personal vehicle, so she starts out every morning full.
Barbara starts with a full tank when she’s heading down to Winston. She burns 5+ gallons for the round trip, so if there’s another pipeline break or some other interruption in fuel supplies, she can always get home.
February MTD kit sales revenue is already at 90% of revenue for all of 2/16, 110% of revenue for all of 2/15, and on track to match revenue for 2/14, which was our biggest February ever. Of course, this is a time of year when sales could just drop dead.
* * * * *
31 and steady snow; they’d said intermittent snow showers a few days ago; now they have another winter storm warning/hazardous weather conditions until Friday. Looks like we could get anywhere from 4-5 inches to 8 or more, on top of the foot that’s on the ground here now. Well, this is more like it; the sort of winter storm situation we remember, only it should have started back in early December.
Feel free to send some of that snow to the great lakes. I could use a good base for Cross Country. Sunday just about melted it all away.
OFD: you’re seeing “just weather”
JimL: you’re seeing the results of Athropogenic Global Warming (which is real!)
51F breezy and overcast here. Back to winter I guess….
The 2″ of rain that fell yesterday is about all dried up and gone. Low humidity and wind helped with that.
I’m sure the “weather” is the result of Arthropogenic Global Warming. The lobster people who run the world LIKE it warmer.
nick
WRT Oroville evacuation being called off, IMHO the “system” found out that they cannot handle an evacuation of that scope. The state’s only choice was to send everyone home before people started to riot.
Freezing rain this morning. Driving is going to be a real Jimmy Hendrix (Purple Haze https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjwWjx7Cw8I) experience today. So far everything is only on a 2-hour delay, but I expect the closures to start soon. The kids got an early start and got to work okay, there was very little traffic. They have Michelin X-Ice tires on their cars’, as we do on ours. These tires are amazing on ice, almost as good as studs.
“These tires are amazing on ice, almost as good as studs.”
How are they on black ice?
Speaking of ice, that’s twice now I’ve seen somebody driving a car or a truck right across the bay; they even have a road of sorts churned out of the recent snow. Personally I don’t think it’s been cold enough for long enough to do that, yet there they are.
Think of it as evolution in action.
Every year somebody goes through the ice somewhere along this 130-mile-long stretch. Having once fallen through myself, I cannot recommend the experience, and though it’s been half a century, I remember it like it was this morning.
I just went back and checked the delays and closures list and all the public and private schools (including WSU-TC and Columbia Basin College) are now closed.
@OFD asked: “How are they on black ice?”
Depends on the driver, if you do not know how to recognize potential black ice and drive accordingly, you will still end up end-over-end-roundy-roundy-in-the-ditch.
In my experience the X-Ice tires are better on black ice than studs. Studs dig through and break up the ice, but most black ice is very thin and this does not allow the studs to dig in. The rubber compound on the X-Ice tires is “sticky” and soft so the tire “adheres” to the ice. The same goes for a wet road, the tread pushes the water out of the way so your tires’ “stickiness” can adhere to the road, i.e., very little tendency to hydroplane in reasonable water depth.
I get my tires from Costco (for 30+ years), their tire people are Michelin Trained so they know more than your local tire jockey.
Thanks much for the info, Mr. DadCooks; I’ll look into that now at our Costco, 30 miles south of here. Of course we apparently have drivers up here who do not recognize black ice or choose to ignore it (’cause they have four-wheel-drive! and end up in a bad way.
Some young guy this past Saturday evidently thought he could do 100 MPH on the interstate snow-belt ridge above this town and the one to our south and ended up smacking the guard rail and then rolling multiple times; DOA. It’s a precipitous drop off the road down into the median up there, with lots of rocks. And the other side of the highway is rock cliffs and ledges and trees. If there is any tricky precip at all we avoid driving on it and take Old Route 7, a pathway which predates colonial settlement in this state; runs from Quebec to Connecticut.
I just installed Linux Mint 18.1 on my wife’s old laptop which had previously been running Windows XP. I think she’ll be able to use it for Internet and basic office tasks without ever caring that Windows and Office are gone. I copied all her data to a USB memory stick before wiping the drive. The USB memory stick even automounted once I plugged it in all the way. I had previously replaced the 40GB hard drive with a 120GB SSD, so it should have decent performance.
I think the combination of an inexpensive SSD and Linux Mint 18.1 can give new life to a bunch of old laptops. I think my wife will have an easier time adapting to this change than she has with changing versions of Microsoft Office.
@Mr. Dave; Almost exactly the situation here; I backed up my data and wife’s first to an external 4TB drive, and then reformatted the 500GB SSD on here, formerly Winblows 8.1, and then loaded Linux Mint 18.1 Serena. Wife insists that the LibreOffice versions of Excel, Word and PowerPoint do not work the way she wants or is used to, so I also loaded Crossover and Bob’s yer uncle; they all work flawlessly as does Adobe Reader. Bingo.
She’s had zero problems since, other than slow innernet depending on time of day, and was flummoxed at first by wondering why we are somehow in Iceland, Chicago or Hong Kong.
I’d also put in a new power supply and dedicated graphics card.
WRT Oroville evacuation being called off, IMHO the “system” found out that they cannot handle an evacuation of that scope. The state’s only choice was to send everyone home before people started to riot.
The state’s only choice was to send everyone home before people decided that reelecting Moonbeam would be a bad idea.
@Mr. Dave; Almost exactly the situation here; I backed up my data and wife’s first to an external 4TB drive, and then reformatted the 500GB SSD on here, formerly Winblows 8.1, and then loaded Linux Mint 18.1 Serena. Wife insists that the LibreOffice versions of Excel, Word and PowerPoint do not work the way she wants or is used to, so I also loaded Crossover and Bob’s yer uncle; they all work flawlessly as does Adobe Reader. Bingo.
I have a laptop that is generally Linux only, but, with a Crucial SSD installed, I have to keep Windows around to update the firmware on the SSD and run low-level manufacturer diagnostics on the drive.
I am always amazed that the Emergency Managers are surprised by the results of evacuation orders. Take a road net work that, at best, is barely adequate to handle rush-hour traffic and cut it in half. Then tell everyone to leave now. Surprise, the roads can’t handle it. Florida now has plans to turn the major highways all one direction and that is not enough for a Hurricane with days to prepare. I am not sure what we actually pay these people to do.
Florida now has plans to turn the major highways all one direction
My memory seems to be that Texas did that for South Padre Island. A normal bi-directional road was turned into a one way road. Still packed with traffic but at least got off the island before the hurricane arrived.
Or am I thinking about the entrance to Walmart on Black Friday?
”I am not sure what we actually pay these people to do.”
Lie to us.
Make us feel safe.
And otherwise take up space and utility company overhead, while they have chit-tons of time off, via holidays, vay-cay, personal, and sick time, and meanwhile play online poker and surf smut sites and download questionable material and click on any link that appears in an email. Oh, and have endless useless meetings about having more useless meetings and then more post-meetings to talk about the previous useless meetings.
“Google’s not-so-secret new OS”
http://www.osnews.com/story/29666/Google_s_not-so-secret_new_OS
Google is going to walk away from Linux for Android ?
No way !
My memory seems to be that Texas did that for South Padre Island
They have done it on all the major roads leading from the coast. I-10 to the west, I-45 to the north, and US 59 NE leading out from Houston have been set up to be one way only outbound, and you can drive on the right shoulder. Not sure how far that goes, but at various places, it looks like some lanes get forced off the interstate to smaller side roads for dispersal. There are also places where the National Guard will deploy fueling stations to give you a few gallons of gas to keep going. They also have a system where diasabled and elderly people get evacuated in buses. And the Red Cross now allows pets in crates at shelters, as there are people that wouldn’t leave pets behind and stayed in danger zones.
This was done after the “great Rita bugout”. We went west via some back roads, with Austin as the destination. My mom, wife, daughter and daughter’s boyfriend in one car with the cats and dogs, me in another with the computers, pictures, clothing, and a few valuables. We went west as far as south of Luling and cut north towards Austin there. The first gas we found was near Luling – only a handful of cars were there, and we filled up quickly. I had been saving gas by keeping the AC off for 45 minutes per hour as my minivan got mediocre MPG. When we got to I-10 it was still a parking lot and the truck stop there was jammed with people looking for gas. The rest of the drive to Austin was uneventful and we got to my brother’s house that evening.
“”I am not sure what we actually pay these people to do.”
Lie to us.
Make us feel safe.”
Fire the lot of them. I’d rather pay them unemployment for 6 months while they sit on their large posteriors than pay them to be make things more burdensome on those who work.
Which kind of raises a point – we have excess capacity. When we have amusement parks that everyone goes to, vacations that everyone takes, and an entertainment “industry”, it’s clear that we have more capacity than we need.
Is a basic income a good thing to have? Or is it better to require everyone to work – say 10 hours/week – to earn that basic income? As long as there is litter on the road, grass in the median that needs cut, or floors in the courthouse that need swept, there will be public-work type work that needs done to “earn” the basic income. Would that not be better than the problems we have now with the chronically unemployed who are NOT earning their keep?
The rest of the drive to Austin was uneventful and we got to my brother’s house that evening.
Yup, yup, and yup. There is a lesson here: Have a bug-out destination where you know there is room for you and food ! And be kind to your host by bringing food.
Bugging out and planning to stay at the first open hotel is not a plan, that is plan of 80% of the bugouters and is a freaking disaster.
BTW, during the Rita evacuation, my brother (who lives inside 610) drove to his farm in Luling by going west on Texas coastal highway 35. No traffic and he was at his farm in less than three hours. He is way smarter than me. I just watched the people trying to drive west on highway 59 during the Rita evacuation and shook my head. We aren’t going to bugout from Sugar Land unless the MZBs are coming this way. No leaving even for a Cat 5 hurricane. Of course, we are 80 ft above sea level here and safe from storm surge.
* MZB = mutant zombie biker from “Lights Out”
https://www.amazon.com/Lights-Out-David-Crawford/dp/0615427359
“Warren Buffett just dropped Walmart and signaled the death of retail as we know it”
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/warren-buffett-just-dropped-walmart-225521054.html
“Since the end of 2014, Walmart shares have fallen 21%, compared with a jump of 119% in Amazon.”
My dad dumped his Walmart stock several weeks ago.
I’ve never had to bail out of anywhere here in CONUS; in New England it’s been commonplace to have to deal with hurricanes, blizzards, and ice storms, with the accompanying power outages, going back as far as I and my parents and grandparents could remember. Although my mom and her family did have to get evacuated when their neighborhood in Fairhaven, MA became an island during the 1938 monster. Open friggin’ boats while what used to be the harbor rose in the air above them, and other boats, big ones, too, found miles inland later. People rowing boats in downtown Providence, RI.
Short of a train wreck spewing nerve gas over the landscape or a plane smacking into the village here and exploding, we’re bugging IN.
Speaking of storms, it was snowing earlier and now it’s snowing again, big lazy flakes, and LOTS of them, coming down steady. I’m guessing we could end up with another eight inches on top of the twelve already on the ground. Just like old times.
Am I good? I dunno; I’ve got at least a month’s worth of food, well water, firewood, a roof over my head, a small arsenal, lamps and lanterns and FLASHLIGHTS and batteries, first aid supplies, cat and dawg food, scanners and shortwave radios, books to read, etc., and if the power goes out, I’m still OK.
Short of a combined multiple fire team assault at O-Dark-Thirty with crew-served weapons and air support. And I won’t be the first guy down, either.
SHTF reports coming from Londonistan and Paris today:
https://westernrifleshooters.wordpress.com/2017/02/15/paris-is-burning/comment-page-1/#comment-212026
I had amusing conversations with police a couple times. I’d report a crime where I knew the identity and location of the criminal and often the current location of stolen goods if appropriate. And the police would tell me that they weren’t even going to take an official report on it because they had other priorities, blah blah blah.
So then I’d tell them that the next time someone took a swing at me I’d break several of his bones regardless of the presence of children, or that I was going to wait at night on my property and the next time a gang of “misbehaving juveniles” came by with their spray cans I was going to hurt them all. Because if the police, who were paid to enforce the laws, couldn’t be bothered to stay awake in their squad cars at night* then it was up to the citizens to enforce the laws, as well as to raise questions about the police budget.
As I said, it led to amusing conversations, with a great number of one-sided threats. I did bring a concealed recorder to one of those conversations, but something went wrong and it didn’t work.
* I had several pictures of cops sleeping in their cruisers. Usually but not only at night. I gave printouts to a couple of the local papers, and they ran one, and that led to demands for them to turn over the name of the person who unlawfully took the picture. Nothing but fun. That sort of thing has been the case almost everywhere I’ve lived. I’m somewhat skeptical of claims that “most police are good and honest and competent”. It seems a rather odd run of luck that almost every place I’ve lived the police were bullies or other kinds of criminals, or corrupt in any of several ways.
SHTF reports coming from Londonistan and Paris today
Mostly musloid* scum wanting to turn the place in a hell hole like they came from. Want to give Paris that “homey” feeling.
*They are not like us, they are not like normal human beings, they are an inferior life form.
Barbara sent me a link Saturday to a PA novel that was free for the download through yesterday. I’d never heard of the author or the series, but I downloaded it just to take a look. I finally got around to looking at it last night. Very odd. It’s written in the first-person present, and reads like it was written by a 30-ish stay-at-home military wife with four kids who’s a huge fan of The Walking Dead. It turns out that’s just what it is. Her main characters are thinly-disguised variations of the main cast in TWD, and there are zombies all over the place. Not my cup of tea, but it and the rest of the series get very good reviews if that’s your kind of thing.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LHYIPY6?pldnSite=1
That Zombie PA book looks to be good. But, John Ringo’s Zombie series is the absolute best. Well worth $6.99 to start the Kindle edition. There is a serious Buffy influence using the author’s two daughters as the main protagonists. Extremely recommended.
https://www.amazon.com/Under-Graveyard-Black-Tide-Rising-ebook/dp/B00ELR01M0/
Stolen from the top review: “This book is the start of a new series by John Ringo. The setting is contemporary and deals with the outbreak of a man made virus that starts with flu symptoms followed by rabies-like symptoms — causing extreme aggression. This fits in with the concept of a “viral zombie” outbreak — the infected are not “dead”, but they are not curable and have lost virtually all “human” traits.”.
“The story has several points of view, with the main POV’s being from the members of a “survivalist” (or “preparer”) family that initially avoids the plague and then works with others during the spread of the plague (and collapse of civilization). There are several exciting action sequences and various moral dilemmas that the survivors have to face (which make for a great read and which I will not spoil here).”
Second that reco. I’ve read all the Ringo except the weird sex series, and the zombie ones I like the best. Have read them several times. There is a point were it gets a bit tedious during the “education of a young officer” stuff, but overall A rated.
n
Am I good? I dunno; I’ve got at least a month’s worth of food, well water, firewood, a roof over my head, a small arsenal, lamps and lanterns and FLASHLIGHTS and batteries, first aid supplies, cat and dawg food, scanners and shortwave radios, books to read, etc., and if the power goes out, I’m still OK.
Yes. It sucks when you have to eat your dog, and I am not sure if cats are edible. It really sucks when your dog and cats eat you !
Zombies cross the line between SF and fantasy, and I can’t stand fantasy. If it’s impossible what’s the point?
Zombies cross the line between SF and fantasy, and I can’t stand fantasy. If it’s impossible what’s the point?
Ringo’s zombies are still alive. They just “caught” a manmade flu virus with a rabies payload which sends them into perpetual rage. Which, my son says is impossible to manufacture. Anyway, Ringo’s zombies are subject to environmental conditions and can drown, be shot, be killed, die, die, die.
Ringo’s zombies are not fantasy. They are not supernatural. They are still alive but the viral rabies payload fried their brains. They are just victims of a horrible person who created the virus. But, 99% of the world’s population catches the virus in a month.
So why call them zombies if they’re not?
I’m not a synthetic biologist, so I have no opinion about that except that intuitively it seems unlikely.
Also, I’m not sure what “rabies payload” means, but if it’s rabies those fake “zombies” aren’t going to last long anyway.
So far as I understand it, zombies are cadavers come back to some sort of animation approaching life behavior and characteristics and could be in any stage of decomposition. But then there are the voodoo zombies, which IIRC, are actual human beings put into a death-like but still semi-functional state to serve as slaves to the “witch” or “witch doctor.”
So technically, the zombies in The Walking Dead are the real McCoy. In the series they’re not called zombies; they’re walkers, or roamers.
The Ringo series as described does not awake any flicker of interest with me; I prefer real history, which is stranger than anything anyone could possibly dream up. And has plenty of drama and suspense and moral issue questions and dilemmas. But as always, YMMV.
Yeah, not fantasy. He gives a consistent explanation and the characters spend (possibly too much) time explaining that it’s a revolutionary technique, etc. not believing what they’re seeing, etc. He’s got some real scientist advisors, so it’s probably not all armwavium. One of the suspects is part of the syn- bio hacking scene…
There’s also a lot of hand wringing about calling them zombies, since they aren’t dead, but in the end the characters decide it’s just easier. One of the moral dilemmas is that they are all mass murderers, since the ‘afflicted’ are just sick, and not already dead.
Anyway, it’s a fun read, well written, and mostly fast paced, with some serious treatment of bugging out by sea, and how you bootstrap the recovery.
n
Also some very funny scenes with thinly disguised modern people. Jenny Mcarthy gets an especially good taunting when she gets the virus – – “Don’t you wish you had a —-vaccine!!!????”
Ringo’s zombies = perpetually enraged humans
You can read half of the first book online (legally) here at:
http://www.baen.com/Chapters/9781451639193/9781451639193.htm
The Baen book ad is at
http://www.baen.com/under-a-graveyard-sky.html
So I was thinking of picking up a Toughbook CF-30 from Ebay and getting a drive caddy and SSD for a laptop. The drive caddies I can find cost more than the computer and about as much as the SSD. So I guess I will do something else.
He gives a consistent explanation and the characters spend (possibly too much) time explaining that it’s a revolutionary technique, etc. not believing what they’re seeing, etc.
Some of David Weber obviously rubbed off onto John Ringo during their collaborations. BTW, I am reading David Weber’s eighth Safehold book at the moment. 1000+ pages with 500+ pages of initialization before the bodies start flying around. Editors are not welcome.
https://www.amazon.com/Hells-Foundations-Quiver-Safehold-David/dp/0765361558/
Warren Buffett just dropped Walmart and signaled the death of retail as we know it.
It is almost time for Chairman Warren to deliver his simple, down-to-earth financial wisdom … ghostwritten by Fortune editor Carol Loomis.
Selling WalMart is probably part of whatever theme he’s shilling this year in the Berkshire annual report. Plus, the sale gets the bottom line in shape to support the traditional BRK share price pop after the first of March. The stock is already on a run thanks in part to publicity from the HBO documentary (another branch of Time Warner, parent of Fortune magazine).
Unlike Amazon, WalMart has to make money to keep shareholders happy.
“So I was thinking of picking up a Toughbook CF-30 from Ebay..”
I haven’t gotten around tuit yet but I plan to get a Toughbook from either there or Amazon at some point, doubling the RAM, and loading Andy’s Ham Radio Linux on it and taking it with me when I go out with various radios and antennas. The RAV4’s rear cargo hold is nicely set up for mobile ham ops, too.
Meanwhile the snow continues here and the plows are out; I gotta say, they keep this street pretty clear every winta. And they stay on it. I don’t mind paying taxes for stuff like that but would prefer cutting out the gummint middlemen and middlewomyn.
Ringo’s zombies = perpetually enraged humans
You mean like Dumbocrats?
And progs and SJWs and the Soros legions.
Also the army Obola is organizing from his mansion bunker two blocks from the White House, plus all his Deep State operatives left in place in the Fed bureaucracy—the Deep State.
We not only have a potential second civil war out here; there is another one that’s been going on for a while in the Fed government; looks to be about 50-50 as to who has the upper hand at any given time.
I expect to see some major chit go down in this country this year. How much it will affect us up here in Retroville or down in Sparta, NC is probably minimal, though. Most of the chit will go down in the cities.
So I was thinking of picking up a Toughbook CF-30 from Ebay and getting a drive caddy and SSD for a laptop. The drive caddies I can find cost more than the computer and about as much as the SSD. So I guess I will do something else.
My (Mostly) Linux laptop is a Dell Latitude E6400 purchased from a school surplus depot for $50. It isn’t a Toughbook, but it is a sturdy, well-built machine.
Also, with IBM circling the drain, a lot of former employee Thinkpads are out on the refurb market cheap.
I’ve got a stack of CF-29s and 30s. I’ve (re)built a 29 and a 30. With ram and an SSD the 30 is very capable as my main “field” machine. Mostly networks stuff and machine configuration. It’s a core 2 duo designed for win Vista.
Get a cheap SSD on ebay. There is a guy there with drive caddies AND THE CABLE for around $30. You can use most external USB CD or DVD drives, so you don’t need to find the insert one (expensive). SOME of the TBs won’t install windows from an external drive, so I’ve got one insertable DVD drive that I can move around, but my plan was to rebuild some and resell them. Never quite got to it.
The drivers are all available from panasonic, but there isn’t much guidance about which driver does what, and there were a lot of optional hardware choices. Install ’em all, let windows sort them out.
there are forums for support since the TBs have a huge fan following, esp among rebuilders.
I had no trouble running andy linux with SDR# and my dongle on the 29 (winXP) from cd. The touch screen wasn’t supported on the live cd though when I tried it on my 30. I’m running win7 on the 30.
LOVE not having to carry a computer bag. Grab the psu and the pc and go.
nick
ADDED- or find a caddy and buy the cable from discountedlaptopparts on ebay.
Speaking of the Deep State, is ICE on the Normals side or Libturdian? Dey bin bussin’ some azz lately. Buh bye Dreamers! Jus cuz you came as a kid don mesn yousa not a scumbag. Had plenty of time to work on Citizenship.
“Also, with IBM circling the drain, a lot of former employee Thinkpads are out on the refurb market cheap.”
And probably mine, which I turned in when I was laid off four years ago from the IBM plantations in Williston and Essex Junction, VT, straddling the Winooski River, which I crossed countless times hauling various pieces of server hardware. It started out with Winblows 7 on it, but then it was decreed from on high that the peons would be required to install IBM’s version of Red Hat on them, which we were fine with. The managers didn’t have to and were vociferous about not doing that on their laptops; married as they were to Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint slides. I will say that ThinkPads are pretty solid and durable; I liked mine.
“Speaking of the Deep State, is ICE on the Normals side or Libturdian…”
My next-younger brother’s brother-in-law works in ICE down in MA; I get the impression that the lower-levels of supervisors and rank-and-file, like a lot of cop shops, are Normals, and the upper-level politician bureaucrats are Libturdian. How long will they continue to bus the illegals out and in what numbers and how much of it is for show, is an open question at this point.
Bracken and others expect a real mess in Europe this year and escalation of open warfare, with Hama Rules applied to musloid enclaves, eventually. They also expect the enemy to attempt to exploit vulnerabilities in this country after that, eighteen months or so out from now. We shall see; unless we hear of European armored units and close-air-support attacks on the jihadi hives, I don’t even wanna think about the alternative, i.e., expansion of their “caliphate” and sharia.
From the UnplusUngoodBadThink Department:
https://westernrifleshooters.wordpress.com/2017/02/16/very-very-bad/
What is a Hama Rule ?
http://middleeast.about.com/od/syria/f/hama-rules.htm
Ah, I see. Kill anyone who looks like an enemy, women and children too.
I’m partial to the CF-52. It’s a semi-rugged with a handle, and it’s tough enough for most of my work. I’ve bought 5 of them over the year, plus 2 for my day job. Good machines. they “just work”. About half the price (new) of the fully-rugged devices.
One of the motivations is the 3 docking stations I have for the ’52. Any one of them can go on any of the docks and work.
4 run Windows 10 (thanks to the free upgrade) while the original (bought new) still runs Windows Vista. Vista is the “emergency backup” that is about to become my MIL’s main machine (to retire her XP machine).
Good machines.
IBM circling the drain? I hadn’t heard that.
It started out with Winblows 7 on it, but then it was decreed from on high that the peons would be required to install IBM’s version of Red Hat on them, which we were fine with. The managers didn’t have to and were vociferous about not doing that on their laptops; married as they were to Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint slides. I will say that ThinkPads are pretty solid and durable; I liked mine.
The Linux push was all about outsourcing to the BRICs. Legitimate Windows and Office licenses are insanely expensive in those countries due to rampant piracy.
For a while, God only knows why, IBM management had a push to go Apple, but my former partner and direct reports at Death Star Telephone have never managed to get a decent port of NetClient running on OS X. That is the IBM “killer app”, especially the SSL-based proprietary protocol I designed for them.
We not only have a potential second civil war out here; there is another one that’s been going on for a while in the Fed government; looks to be about 50-50 as to who has the upper hand at any given time.
I expect to see some major chit go down in this country this year. How much it will affect us up here in Retroville or down in Sparta, NC is probably minimal, though. Most of the chit will go down in the cities.
I am wondering when Trump will start the Federal government layoffs. Remember, he wants to cut the federal workforce by 20%. Or is he just going to do that by attrition ? I also wonder if he has to have Congresses approval to layoff federal employees ?
IBM circling the drain? I hadn’t heard that.
I’m not sure if that is sarcasm, but here is Cringley’s book on it:
https://www.amazon.com/Decline-Fall-IBM-American-Icon/dp/0990444422/
It is basically a collection of several of his columns on IBM.
http://www.cringely.com/
The latest IBM death notice, there have been several, is his prediction for 2017. Sooner or later, he will get it right.
http://www.cringely.com/2017/01/09/15395/
Some of David Weber obviously rubbed off onto John Ringo during their collaborations. BTW, I am reading David Weber’s eighth Safehold book at the moment. 1000+ pages with 500+ pages of initialization before the bodies start flying around. Editors are not welcome.
The Honor Harrington series got real bloated, then slimmed down. However, the latest books are said to be rehashes of the book before them, mostly from other character’s POV, or are a series of events to characters you don’t care about on planets that you have never heard of. One of the books even has a complete chapter from the earlier one. Sigh.
The Honor Harrington series got real bloated, then slimmed down. However, the latest books are said to be rehashes of the book before them, mostly from other character’s POV, or are a series of events to characters you don’t care about on planets that you have never heard of. One of the books even has a complete chapter from the earlier one. Sigh.
I have noticed that. And I am a couple of books behind in the Honor series. This is the problem when you kill off all of your enemies in the first ten books of a series.
The Safehold series, IMHO, is a rehash of the third book of the Dahak series, “Heirs of Empire”. Many facts were changed to protect the guilty but the bones are the same. One book is becoming twelve and the sales are YYYYUUUUGGGGEEEE.
https://www.amazon.com/Heirs-Empire-Dahak-David-Weber/dp/0671877070
https://www.amazon.com/Off-Armageddon-Reef-David-Weber/dp/0330534947/