This week is half over and I’ve hardly started. Time flies.
More later…..
Oh, the cold has returned after our brief warm spell. 44F and misty wet this am. Forecast for T-storms all day changed to ‘showers’. As soon as I trust them enough to make plans, they change the forecast. Better not be raining tomorrow. Grrrr.
nick
Subbing again today, art class, what a mess in the classroom. I guess it is par for the course. Got called last night about 10:00P. Have done this class before, not too bad.
Apparently I now have a reputation in the school as a sub that is ruthless when dealing with cell phones. I have sent several to the office over the course of the year and word has spread. When I tell them no cell phones in class they are now complying without issue.
Last phone I took the kid was almost in tears. Wanted me to reconsider because he did not want others to see him crying. My response was too bad, you know the rules, I warned you at the beginning of class. There are consequences. He refused to leave the classroom. Three times I told him to get out. Finally had to have him escorted to the office where he wanted to check out because he was ill. I suspect this might have been his second or even third time, third the punishment is quite severe.
As for me I really don’t care. I am not here to be their friend.
54F right now but expecting a high of 80F. Predicting a drop back into the 60s as the week goes on. Took my shirt off yesterday afternoon while doing some yard work. I’m sure the pool is still a little too cool.
Ohh, masterful troll…..
n
22 and snowing. Again. I didn’t run the thrower last night, so I’ll get the stinkeye when I get home because the MIL had to drive through it. C’est la vie.
You’re probably gonna get the stinkeye anyway, might as well be for something you actually didn’t do, and that way you KNOW why you’re getting it…..
n
The WA State Flu body continues to rise. Currently 12 in the Tri-Cities (previous high was 6 in 2012), 23 in Spokane, and 430 in the state.
A licensed concealed carry person thwarted an armed car jacking in Pasco yesterday. At a stoplight the illegal crimigrant MS-13 scumbag stood in front of the armed citizen’s SUV and raised his gun, the guy in the SUV was quicker. Only wounded the scum though.
Ah, the wonderful sound of fast-running water in the water pipes. When everything is turned off…
Looks like there’s a busted pipe somewhere between us and the water main. The town has a couple of guys out here looking for the break. I expect we get to pay the repair bill, which could be exciting – they tell us the pipe is up to 5 meters down, and runs partially under our neighbors’ property.
Crossing my fingers it turns out to be something simple…
they tell us the pipe is up to 5 meters down, and runs partially under our neighbors’ property
Yikes, that will get expensive to repair. Hopefully they can just repair the break rather than replace the entire line. Needed that done to my main water line. Depth varied from 2 feet to just over 7 feet. Backhoe was the most expensive part. During the replacement they found the old septic tank that had not been properly filled in when the sewer line was installed. The backhoe fell partially into the old tank. It was able to extricate itself using the digger arm and the front bucket.
Here they also make us pay for the water that passes through the meter. They will waive the sewage fee. Still a $400.00 water bill is shocking because you did not know you had the leak.
Good luck.
Breaking Cat News: testing gravity
http://www.gocomics.com/breaking-cat-news/2018/02/07
I predict a good test with lots of repeatable results.
Subbing again today, art class, what a mess in the classroom. I guess it is par for the course. Got called last night about 10:00P. Have done this class before, not too bad.
So did you turn down Phi Beta Upsidedown or what ever their name is ?
Last phone I took the kid was almost in tears. Wanted me to reconsider because he did not want others to see him crying. My response was too bad, you know the rules, I warned you at the beginning of class. There are consequences.
I went to go see “12 Strong” with Dad the other day. My phone vibrated during the movie and I automatically took it out to see what was going on. Oops. Next movie I go to, I am turning it to silent.
And Dad and I are going to see “Hostiles” at the Victoria Cinemark tomorrow. And it is getting good reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. James Patterson says never miss a Christian Bale movie.
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hostiles
@nick, you need to make a thousand copies of this and distribute it at your nearby apartment complexes for their New Years and other holiday celebrations.
http://www.gocomics.com/bc/2018/02/07
““I shot an arrow into the air. It came to ground I know not where.””
The cat cartoon wasn’t what I expected. I once saw a funnier one: a cat with a piece of buttered toast tied to its feet. You know how toast always falls butter-side down?
A live view of “Starman” (the Telsa and it’s “driver” currently traveling towards Mars): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBr2kKAHN6M .
Quite interesting to watch.
And I am wondering what Jerry would say about this…
Well, there’s good news, bad news and dunno-yet news.
The good news is that the break is before our water meter. Also that it is on our property, if just barely. The bad news is – because we’re on a hill – it’s likely the pipe was laid before our garden was leveled, by adding about 2 meters of dirt in that particular area. Which mean that the pipe will be at least 3 meters down.
The dunno-yet news, of course, is what exactly happened down there. We hope they can just patch it. But the pipe undoubtedly dates from when the house was built, back in 1934. So there’s no telling what shape its actually in. The digger is coming tomorrow morning early, so it should be a fun day…
@JimL: The MIL could shovel the snow. I know, division of labor and all that, but sometimes it’s good for the other half to realize that you do handle things that they don’t want to deal with. Ahem, like broken water pipes…
@Rick: Thanks for the link – I had no idea they were live-streaming from the Tesla!
Anyone know if they launched his car because no one trusted them to launch a real payload? Seems like even an untried platform is worth a shot if you’ve got something that needs to go up…..
n
Wife shoveled the drive. Just called on her way to work. I said “thank you” and got silence. Oops.
I think this is standard. An untried rocket, no insurance company will cover your satellite. And satellites cost a *lot* of money.
Whatever one thinks of Musk, his instinct for getting publicity is just unbelievable. He’s succeeding in re-igniting civilian interest in space, in publicizing his rockets, in publicizing his cars, and in publicizing himself.
I frankly did not expect the care with which the mannequin has been posed in the car. That won’t have been easy to set up, in a way that would survive launch. And the little touches, like “Don’t Panic” on the display? I am seriously in awe, and I normally detest marketing.
And I am wondering what Jerry would say about this…
I’m sure he would have been delighted with yesterday’s test.
Dr. Pournelle would point out that SpaceX is on the cusp of providing on-demand access to orbit for the price of fuel while NASA continues to be the poster child for his “Iron Law”, frittering away money on SLS which may fly once and, at $10 billion each launch (current guesstimates) be too expensive to continue.
So did you turn down Phi Beta Upsidedown or what ever their name is ?
Not yet. They are waiting to see how long they can go without IT support. In the meantime I take subbing jobs when available. Money is not the issue, something to do is the issue.
Money is not the issue, something to do is the issue.
I spent way too much of my 40s either unemployed or underemployed. It drove me crazy and left me bitter about our time in the Northwest.
Things have definitely turned around over the last year, however.
Sugar Land – Post Hurricane Harvey Projects Ongoing
http://www.sugarlandtx.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=1098
“Hurricane Harvey, the most extreme rain event in U.S. history.”
Looks like Sugar Land is going to try to take over our levee in Greatwood. My 4,000 neighbors and I own the levee personally so it will be difficult for the city to do so.
The pictures on this presentation are amazing:
http://www.sugarlandtx.gov/HarveyAnalysis
One of my programmers gave notice yesterday for the end of the month. He has been with me for over 13 years. But the siren song of 35% more money at a larger business inside Houston is calling him away. He will be a senior programmer working on pipeline automation software. Sigh.
@Greg
I advised a newcomer from Texas about Seattle just last night. It is just incomprehensible how lacking in manners people are here. I got some of RBT’s silica dessicants and O2 absorber off Barbara’s hands, gave a pound of silica in big Mason jar to a friend who said it woukd be great for keeping his 3-D printing filament dry.
I wait, (Ha!) for the ten second email saying, “Thank you”.
I shot an arrow into to the air and where it landed, I know not where. Probably never will.
One of my programmers gave notice yesterday for the end of the month. He has been with me for over 13 years. But the siren song of 35% more money at a larger business inside Houston is calling him away. He will be a senior programmer working on pipeline automation software. Sigh.
The wonders of $60+/bbl oil.
Also, C++ is hot again all of a sudden. In my experience, as of late, the disconnect that often happens between the supply and demand sides of the equation is that the developer doesn’t have “Boost” professional experience on their resume.
I think anyone with C++03 skills can get along in Boost, but you have to deal with the right HR droid who understands that possibility.
Also, C++ is hot again all of a sudden.
He is moving to a C# shop. In fact, he actually likes C# more than C++.
I advised a newcomer from Texas about Seattle just last night. It is just incomprehensible how lacking in manners people are here.
My job in Seattle was the only time in my career that the management lies motivated me to quit without notice.
CoCo Communications/Unium Wifi. The only current positive review for the place on Glassdoor was penned under a pseudonym by the documentation specialist turned development manager ex-wife of the CTO. Glassdoor doesn’t care that it violates their terms of service.
@lynn, nice ppt the city did…
n
“I advised a newcomer from Texas about Seattle just last night. It is just incomprehensible how lacking in manners people are here.”
Not being in Seattle, I do appreciate the slide rule and novel. Actually, it is the thought that I cherish.
@lynn, nice ppt the city did…
If Harvey had gone north of Houston, at least half of Sugar Land would have been flooded. I think that people are starting to realize this. Four of the Brazos River top ten historic crests have been in the last three years. Plus with all of the construction on the northwest side of Houston, I suspect that the Brazos River will get higher and quicker due to all of the runoff. Sugar Land does not want to become Meyerland …
http://water.weather.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?wfo=HGX&gage=RMOT2
Heck if the cat 4 had landed in Galveston and come up the bayou into town it would have been deadly.
n
He is moving to a C# shop. In fact, he actually likes C# more than C++.
Yikes! To each their own I guess. I like Tcl.
My only experience with a .Net language was rewriting a C# program for Death Star Telephone. The original required 8 hours to run on a Xenon server. My Python version ran in three minutes on my Mac laptop. It was my *first* Python program ever.
I will concede that, as a web application platform, the system is deterministic, much more reliable to deploy than the equivalent J2EE environments. The legend is that, 20 years ago, Gates, determined to beat back Java servlets, sent a limo to Borland’s parking lot to pick up Anders Hejlsberg and his team as they headed to lunch, snagging the entire Turbo Pascal language and runtime team in one swoop.
The old Borland HQ had an entrance right off of the highway between Santa Cruz and San Jose. I drove past it several times over the years. No guard shack, easy limo access. Watching Microsoft chase down prey in those days was fun — kinda like feeding time at Gatorland.
I’m sitting on a verbal C++ job offer tonight. Ironically, I have college recruiting to do tomorrow.
My only experience with a .Net language was rewriting a C# program for Death Star Telephone. The original required 8 hours to run on a Xenon server. My Python version ran in three minutes on my Mac laptop. It was my *first* Python program ever.
I dislike garbage collected software languages. The garbage collector seems to go into panic mode right as the user clicks a button. The windowing system caches the button click and waits for the app to respond. Meanwhile, the user is waiting for some feedback so he clicks the button again. And again. And again. And again. And then the panic mode garbage collection is over and the app processes all of those button clicks. Congratulations, you just bought 50 new shirts !
I use to write Win16 software in Smalltalk. It’s garbage collector was the mark and replace method. It worked ok. Until it ran out of pointers or memory and then the user did not have a clue that Windows 3 or 95 was also hosed and needed rebooting. Man, I do not miss those days.
Ah, garbage collection. Gotta have a LISP machine for real garbage collection….
I’m thankful I got out of software development. I got bored. I get bored every 5-10 years.
Come to think of it, I’m bored now. Maybe it’s time to dust off my toolbox and go work on Diesels again. That, or something else that’s challenging and completely different than network admin.
I dislike garbage collected software languages. The garbage collector seems to go into panic mode right as the user clicks a button.
Apple solved the problem with the Objective C UI on handhelds by putting automatic reference counting (ARC) into the Clang compiler targeting iOS 5 and later. I doubt the App Store would have survived if they had not introduced that tech. Even their internal libraries leaked like a sieve through iOS 4.
Newer flavors of C++ have something similar to ARC in shared/unique/weak pointers, but the feature isn’t hard to back port . I use still use a shared pointer class that the UW program provided to us.
Driving to San Antonio tomorrow for an auction pickup and delivery. I offered to deliver something big, if the guy would help me load something I’m picking up. Works out for both of us, but it’s a lot of driving for me.
So off to bed….
n
Driving to San Antonio tomorrow for an auction pickup and delivery. I offered to deliver something big, if the guy would help me load something I’m picking up. Works out for both of us, but it’s a lot of driving for me.
Luling Buc-ee’s road trip!
No buccceeesss for me. I did stop at the TxDOT rest station/picnic area. VERY nice. Clean, well laid out, and interesting architecture and detailing.
n