Frustrated. Accidentally hit ‘back’ and lost my whole post.
Cool and damp this am.
Did some bare minimum prep stuff this week, mostly garden.
Site views and visits have stayed very consistent, around high 500s visitors, and around 2000 visits per day. Top 10 pages are only a couple hundred visits apart and don’t really have anything in common. I miss RBT and OFD.
Did you guys (and gals) do any prepping this week??
n
Columbine anniversary today and the anti-gun nuts are continuing to stir the pot. Parkland to join them. Talk of local high schools doing walkouts(hmmm, whose behind that?).
OTH it’s 420. Look for the green moon.
China is now refuising to take our recycled materials, and the lobby want the government to subsidise them. I’d rather just bring back back yard incinnerators. I assumed that the materials (clean paper, glass, plastic bottles, etc.) were actually worth recycling. Apparently not.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-20/sa-councils-unlikely-to-scrap-recycling-but-need-help-in-costs/9680502
RE: Prepping
I pulled my Remmington-870 out and discovered that the tactical light mounted under the barrel wouldn’t function. Opened it up to discover the battery wasn’t just flat but had begun to leak. Well, it had been a few years since I mounted it. So, after cleaning the unit thoroughly, I replaced ALL the batteries in my weapon lights and lasers just to be sure and put a tickler in my calendar to remind me to do this again in a couple of years. Then I ordered more ENLOOP slow self-discharge batteries to have plenty in my spares kit for radios and such.
We are slowly eating our way through our canned food storage so we have less to move when I retire and we move house in a year or so. Not touching our re-packaged LTS stuff in buckets as it’s mostly beans and pasta and easier to transport.
I also visited the range to get my 9mm carbine optics sighted in again. When I visited my son in OK I wanted to impress him with the little folding Kel Tec Sub 2000 but when I snapped on the red-dot I couldn’t hit the side of a barn. No amount of fiddling could get it to keep aim point. I was embarrassed. When I returned home I discovered that the rail mount was loose from the optic and it wobbled all over. A little Locktite solved that and 30 min at the range had it zeroed in. Then I did several cycles of removing and re-installing the optic just to verify that it wouldn’t drift. I am satisfied now. Too bad it will likely be lost in the Mississippi.
There is a video on YouTube asking if Ikea Ladda rechargable batteries are made in the same factory that makes Eneloop batteries. I thought it was interesting because there in now an Ikea store within an hours drive of my location. Apparently the price Ikea sells their batteries at is better than Eneloop pricing. One more thing that I should check out.
@Miles_Teg said:
China has been in actual practice not taking most of our recycling for many years. As they are “shipping” it from here to there they dump a majority of it in the ocean, hence the huge Pacific floating island of waste larger than the state of Texas.
Recycling is not the wonderful panacea that the “greens” and “eco-weenies” would have us believe. It ends up using more energy than it saves.
All waste (including the “greens and eco-weenies”), other than metals, should be incinerated and used to produce electricity.
Don’t try googling the facts related to this as the truth has been scrubbed from searches. (adjusting my tin-foil hat)
Duck Duck Go might work?
I listened to a report on NPR about a month ago about the problem over recycling and waste. Their spin was that that the problem is the Chinese don’t want it because it’s often polluted, all because Americans don’t recycle correctly. Of course.
Quick search using Google found this
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/04/20/weak-markets-make-consumers-wishful-recycling-big-problem/100654976/
I would be hesitant to make that equation. I dated a girl once whose father managed one of the big bakeries. When I found out they made bread for a particular store as well, he cautioned me to think twice. They put the best ingredients in their own product as their name was on it. Seconds went to the store brand.
Intel, for that matter, makes the chips that fail the more intense testing into lower-level chips. If it won’t run at 3.0G, sell it for 2.7G and call it good.
37º and sunny by the shallowest pond. It looks like we’re not going to get that last 1.5″, so we’ll have to settle for second. Of course, we’ve had snow as late as Mother’s Day in the past, so there is SOME hope.
I listened to a report on NPR about a month ago about the problem over recycling and waste. Their spin was that that the problem is the Chinese don’t want it because it’s often polluted, all because Americans don’t recycle correctly. Of course.
I listen to the San Antonio talk station on my commute home. Apparently, the city has quite a problem with diapers going into the recycle bins, to the point where a special education effort is being made in some communities.
Recycling is not the wonderful panacea that the “greens” and “eco-weenies” would have us believe. It ends up using more energy than it saves.
We put PET (recycled soda bottle) carpet into our house since we couldn’t afford anything better at the time. Biiig mistake since the stuff has zero crush resistance and, three years in, already looks like cr*p, especially on the stairs.
@miles, the only time any of it was economical, was during the building boom when metals were 3-10 times more valuable than currently.
There are places where landfill sites are expensive where it might make sense to divert some of the waste stream to avoid paying the landfill fee.
Even for aluminum, single stream or even sorted household waste doesn’t pay, partly because a lot gets diverted from the stream by “can miners” who raid bins in the dark of night. Aluminum is the only household waste that has any real value at all.
IF you can shift some of the cost, by having reliable homeowner sorted materials, or homeowner delivered materials, there might be some value to be had.
On the other hand, my local scrap guy is paying about 7c/pound for “breakage” which is mixed scrap, including electronics. Not even that much gold in modern electronics, and copper is cheap at the moment.
I took 175 pounds of material in this week, 150 in steel at 4c/# and lead acid batteries at 25c/# with the copper wire averaging 30c/pound.
n
Recycling is not the wonderful panacea that the “greens” and “eco-weenies” would have us believe. It ends up using more energy than it saves.
+1
Ecoweenies are all about NIMBY. You could literally dump trash behind the next hill and they would be happy. To them, the recycle bins are like magic: Poof! All your glass, plastic and paper are now new items.
It would not surprise me if Chinese trash haulers began dumping as soon as eyes are off them. Just like everybody else that actually hauls the trash out of a country. Lowest bidder (or slave Chinese labor) and all that.
Regarding DuckDuckGo there is this on the site MakeUseOf this morning:
DuckDuckGo vs. Google
Regarding recycling:
In Kennewick WA we have had “free” recycling for over 20 years. Even with it being “free” (as in not a line item in our garbage bill) there is less than a 20% “compliance rate. If it was to be much greater I do not think that Waste Management could handle the quantity.
Our Waste Management seems to hire more competent “drivers” than many areas where they are. The recycling is picked up by a separate compartmentalized truck and the driver does a presort so only the correct stuff goes into the correct hopper. If a person puts non-recyclables in the recycling they get “tagged”, which is really a joke as there is no penalty.
Our Waste Management seems to hire more competent “drivers” than many areas where they are. The recycling is picked up by a separate compartmentalized truck and the driver does a presort so only the correct stuff goes into the correct hopper. If a person puts non-recyclables in the recycling they get “tagged”, which is really a joke as there is no penalty.
As we were leaving, Portland was in the process of mandating composting. The fines were pretty steep if the garbage men found food waste in trash. The big problem was that the compost materials were only collected every other week, creating the temptation to put compostables into the regular garbage to limit the smell.
Sooner or later, the mandatory composting will creep across the river and up the valley.
“lead acid batteries at 25c/#”
Wow, we have to pay to dispose of them here. As a result, I have been saving mine. Comes in handy when buying new ones: take a core and save a trip.
@Greg
We put PET (recycled soda bottle) carpet into our house since we couldn’t afford anything better at the time. Biiig mistake since the stuff has zero crush resistance and, three years in, already looks like cr*p, especially on the stairs.
Well most carpet is some kind of synthetic. But really what’s more natural than cotton or wool?
The NPR report covered Waste Management, the company, as the largest US exporter.
Of course that’s WM’s spin too.
@MrAtoz, et al.
I won’t cite the article, but Seattle has recently committed 650 (850?) MILLION of my tax dollars to the so-called recycling program such that the trucks are fueled by ‘recyclable’ energy.
Couple that with the ridicuously high wages, pensions, health insurance, etc.. and you have a recipe for disaster. Not including the cost of building and maintaining these Green Trucks which invariably slow down traffic every mornjng.
Just do the numbers, I dare you. My thinking is that more time effort, energy, waste and tax dollars are generated by the do-gooders’ so-called environmental policies than letting the rag and bone man pick glass and cardboard up at a meagre profit.
What really ticks me off is the lack of those green biodegradable organic plastic bags for food waste and compost. Compost is great, and I wouldn’t mind saving my potato peelings etc.
I for one would use them for a SINGLE undersink bin, either public or private but they are no longer to be found, either at Safeway in the “Organic” section, or elsewhere.
Didn’t someone write a book called _Numerical Innumeracy_ a few years ago?
This is a perfect case in point. 850 Million vs. how little to distribute those bags?
@jim~
Just do the numbers, I dare you. My thinking is that more time effort, energy, waste and tax dollars are generated by the do-gooders’ so-called environmental policies than letting the rag and bone man pick glass and cardboard up at a meagre profit.
But what would the bureaucrats do?
As a bonus you can get a plate of meatballs. Yum.
Ikea is anti-gun, banning CHL and even hassling cops who are in uniform. I stopped going to ours when they posted no CHL. Don’t want the business of 800,000 Texans? OK then. Not sure how that meets your fiduciary duty, but that’s between you and your stockholders.
Plus, call me whatever you want, but the place was full of euro trash and hijabs. Not my scene.
n
@ech, when I was in Norway for work, we ate in the IKEA cafe a couple of times a week. Yes, tasty food. In Houston, you can enter the cafe without entering the store, and their food mart was just inside the doors, but I’m still not going back. they’ve made their position on whether they want my business very clear with a big sign on the door saying STAY OUT.
n
I won’t cite the article, but Seattle has recently committed 650 (850?) MILLION of my tax dollars to the so-called recycling program such that the trucks are fueled by ‘recyclable’ energy.
Seattle is a whole other planet, even by West Coast standards. Is the city trying again for income tax via the courts or have they given that up for now?
If Seattle gets an income tax in a non-income tax state thanks to court action, the ruling will be studied very closely by Progs all over the country. Austin will definitely try it.
Starve. Or learn to do something productive. Either would be a net win.
Drains on national productivity just piss me off.
Feed them to the homeless- two birds with one stone….
n
Waste Management in Vegas now has three trucks. On every Sat two trucks come by. One for trash, one for recyclables. No separation of stuff. You get two ~85 gal cans, one blue one light blue (recycle). Every other Sat, another truck comes for “bulk” items. That’s when you put out water heaters, mattresses, etc.
I’d like to go to the “dump” one day to see how WM does recycling. Probably all into the landfill unless some other company buys it.
“Black Coffee Matters”
https://comicallyincorrect.com/starbucks-overreaction/
Edgy but true.
“Google Calls Out Microsoft on Windows 10 S Flaw”
https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-10/156930/google-calls-microsoft-windows-10-s-flaw
“More to the point, this issue speaks to my ongoing discussion about how hard it is to take a big and complex legacy code base like Windows and simplify it to work in a more streamlined fashion. Despite years of componentization efforts, Windows is still a hairball. And it very likely can never be effectively secured. Just patched as problems come up.”
Anything not air gapped to the internet is security compromised. And Windows 10 S may be more secure than regular Windows because it can only run apps from the Windows Store, but it is not a lot more secure.
another school shooting in Fla, but only one injury and mild.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-04-20/one-student-injured-florida-high-school-shooting-suspect-custody
n
“Clutter”
https://xkcd.com/1983/
Oh gosh, I would love to share this with OFD today. And, true, very true.
In the immortal words of OFD, “Be Ruthless!”.
I need to ruthlessly declutter my home office. So if you can’t share it with OFD, at least you shared it with me.
I also miss JEP and RBT. I impatiently await OFD’s return.
I need to ruthlessly declutter my home office. So if you can’t share it with OFD, at least you shared it with me.
Given that OFD might be institutionalized for up to two years, he will have plenty of content here to peruse at his leisure. Growing those nerves back at 1 mm/day for a 6’5″ guy will take time, lots of time.
Umm, I can see 13 radios from where I’m sitting. I have stuff piled on pulled out drawers. My desk is 10 feet long and is at least 2 layers deep. My printer stand has 2 printers and 3 radios on it, and a pc under it. I count 15 flip top bins stacked in front of the cabinets. I think you guys are pikers…..
n
And since I don’t want to de-clutter today, I better get to work on my rent house.
n
Umm, I can see 13 radios from where I’m sitting. I have stuff piled on pulled out drawers. My desk is 10 feet long and is at least 2 layers deep. My printer stand has 2 printers and 3 radios on it, and a pc under it. I count 15 flip top bins stacked in front of the cabinets. I think you guys are pikers…..
Heh, I have a gameroom (13 ft by 18 ft home office), work office (20 ft by 20 ft), a small office building (30 ft by 15 ft), a 15 ft extension on my garage, etc, etc, etc. All full of “stuff” ! And the women’s stuff. Wait, I forgot about the 1,000 ft2 upstairs at the office that I am using for overflow. Sigh.
What does one do with a 1977 Ball Harlem Globetrotters pinball machine that I have not booted in five years ?
Well, my friends at the Fort Bend County Central Appraisal District finally noticed that I added a game room and bath room to my house in 2015. They increased our home size from 3,010 ft2 to 3,385 ft2 and increased the value of my house by 7%. They supposedly measured the outside to say it was 375 ft2 more. My contractor who drew it up told me it is 455 ft2. Guess whom I believe ? My wife wants to contest the upwards valuation but I am not going to try.
https://fbcad.org/Property-Detail?PropertyQuickRefID=R279104&PartyQuickRefID=O0569960
@Nick ; I turned on ‘revisions’ in the site (normally set off). This won’t help you with the stuff you already lost (since ‘revisions’ were disabled), but will help you from any further ham-fisted (ham-moused ?) errors in the future.
This does mean that you have to use the ‘save draft’ button in order to save a ‘revision’. An unlimited number of revisions will be saved (one per ‘save draft’). This does not affect database response time, according to the WP Codex.
It’s an old mantra … ‘save early and often’.
“Microsoft’s bid to secure the IoT: custom Linux, chips, Azure”
http://www.osnews.com/story/30275/Microsoft_s_bid_to_secure_the_IoT_custom_Linux_chips_Azure
“First is a new class of microcontrollers (MCUs) that supports seven critical hardware features that Microsoft says are a necessary foundation to build secure systems. These include support for unforgeable encryption keys protected by hardware, the ability to update system software, and hardware-enforced compartmentalization between software components. Microsoft has some track record in building such systems, in particular with the Xbox, which is designed to have tamper-proof hardware that’s securely updatable.”
Interesting. Scary. One imagines that there will be back doors for deserving people: NSA, CIA, FBI, Microsoft, etc. What could go wrong ?
If I have physical access to the machine, it is not truly secure.
The Dems are even crazier than I thought…
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-21/democrats-sue-trump-campaign-and-russia-over-2016-election-loss/9683230
What does one do with a 1977 Ball Harlem Globetrotters pinball machine that I have not booted in five years ?
Houston has a big pinball show every October. You should be able to find someone to take it off your hands at that event.
You may also want to contact Pinballz Arcade here in Austin. He’s a serious collector and would either want the machine or know someone who would.
I’m surprised Houston doesn’t have at least one vintage arcade.
Retro gaming is huge right now. Don’t give it away for free, especially something niche like 70s Globetrotters. My guess is you have the classic team members on the back glass, the guys who were on Scooby Doo back in the day — Curly Neal, Meadowlark Lemon …
You don’t have room at the office?
I’m beginning to believe the stories about the VA. Vets’ rep at the local VA is harder to get in touch with than my inner socialite. I’m beginning to become frustrated. 3 weeks, no getting through, and no call-backs.
I adore pinball machines, and Space Invaders or Pac Man machines. Anything Seventies or early Eighties.
The boss once upbraded me for disposing of a Commodore Amiga 1000. He said he would have installed it in a Pac Man/Space Invaders console.
Interesting. Scary. One imagines that there will be back doors for deserving people: NSA, CIA, FBI, Microsoft, etc. What could go wrong ?
You forgot Mossad.
The guy we interviewed the other day was the first former Checkpoint employee I’ve encountered who didn’t give off the “Israeli Intelligence” vibe. Of course, the ones who don’t look it are capable of killing you in 30 ways using their pinky.
The Dems are even crazier than I thought…
Althouse: “The Democratic Party on Friday sued President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, the Russian government and the Wikileaks group, claiming a broad illegal conspiracy to help Trump win the 2016 election.”
“Now that there’s a lawsuit, it’s time to think about counterclaims. I’d like to see what the defendants would come up with using an equally aggressive, far-reaching approach to using the courts to promote your political cause. ”
From the comments:
“Ah the smell of desperation in the morning. The “D” in DNC stands for delusional. Do you really want to get in a sort of discovery peeing match? I’d love to see a first class litigator take Ms. Hillary’s deposition, followed by Podesta, followed by Susan Yates, followed by—the list goes on and on. Maybe even Obama? “
I have yet to overestimate their craziness.
In the unlikely event Russia put Trump in the White House, I think they are probably having second thoughts on the deal. I think it is far more likely that the Russian plan was to cast doubt on the election no matter who won. I think that Julian Assange is the Internet’s biggest troll, that he merely leaks private information, not as a public service, but so that he will be considered a serious person, not a troll. Whoever he is, I don’t think he would be interested in helping Trump or Russia. If he liked any US Presidential Candidate, I think he would like Bernie Sanders.
Any Judge with half a brain will dismiss the lawsuit. But then most judges do not have that much brainpower.
Installed three Arlo security cameras in the house. Costco had a special dropping the price from $499 to $399 which includes three cameras, the base unit, an extra battery and all mounting hardware. Seems to work just fine. I installed a thumb drive for local storage. Will use the cameras when we are traveling with someone staying in the house to monitor the house sitter’s activity. I know the family whose child (16 years old) will be staying in the house. His family lives close and his mother keeps close tabs on him while here.
The cameras will be activated when we are also on our one or two days trips to visit the son and other areas. Along with that I installed two smart plugs where lights can be plugged in and the lights controlled remotely and on a schedule. Will use the lights to give the appearance of someone being at home.
There are deadbolts on all the doors, sliding glass door has a metal bar in the track to block opening, all the usual security stuff. Cannot make the house total burglar proof but can make it inconvenient enough perhaps the cretins will move on. We also have five double bulb (LED naturally) motion detector lights on the corners of the house and on the mower shed. Motion activated light above the garage. Motion activated lights (solar powered) on the front and interior of the boat cover. Lots of lights.
Ray, sliding doors and windows should have screws or lag screws in the upper track to prevent lifting both the fixed and sliding panels out of the track. Popular burgler trick.
@Nick: Saw this the other day and thought of you:
How to Build a Bentonite Ground System
Not that you’ll be needing it much in hot and humid Houston. 🙂
Ha, he must have posted that just after I checked his site for updates.
I (fortunately) live in a swamp. I’ll have to explore ground systems some more. At the moment, I’ve got 2 rods at the base of my antenna. I am hearing tons more stations, due to the upgraded cable, and the extra 10ft of height, I think.
My antenna doesn’t require ground radials, which is one of the reasons I picked it up.
n
Retro gaming is huge right now. Don’t give it away for free, especially something niche like 70s Globetrotters. My guess is you have the classic team members on the back glass, the guys who were on Scooby Doo back in the day — Curly Neal, Meadowlark Lemon …
You don’t have room at the office?
It is at the office in the small office building that I am using for storage. And yes, it is the original game with the original Globetrotters on the backplane and playing surface. But it is not a multiball machine. I was offered $300 for it 5 or 6 years ago which I refused. Shoot, I had to replace the motherboard ten years ago which cost me $300 (three new 6502s with all of the ROMs). It is this game.
http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=1125
“GDPR Kills the American Internet: Long Live the Internet!”
https://www.cringely.com/2018/04/20/15514/
“I began writing the print version of this rag in September, 1987. Ronald Reagan was President, almost nobody carried a mobile phone, Bill Gates was worth $1.25 billion, and there was no Internet in the sense we know it today because Al Gore had yet to “invent” it. My point here is that a lot can change in 30+ years and one such change that is my main topic is that, thanks to the GDPR, the Internet is no longer American. We’ve lost control. It’s permanent and probably for the best.”
I think that the internet should remain under USA control.
My dad, my son, and I went to go see “Ready Player One” this afternoon. It was surprisingly good, all three of us liked it. It was a very dystopian future with awesome virtual reality environments.
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ready_player_one/
I have the book in my SBR (strategic book reserve). Now I need to read it.
“EverCam: The Wirefree Security Cam with 365-Day Battery Life”
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1116368506/evercam-the-wirefree-security-cam-with-365-day-bat
My dad just ordered two of these battery wireless 1080p cameras. They are interesting. Dad wants me to buy two for my office building.
I have the book in my SBR (strategic book reserve). Now I need to read it.
“Ready Player One” as written would have been impossible to film.
Still, it would have been cool to see the Zork planet … or a digitally de-aged Matthew Broderick for the “War Games” puzzle.
I began writing the print version of this rag in September, 1987. Ronald Reagan was President, almost nobody carried a mobile phone, Bill Gates was worth $1.25 billion, and there was no Internet in the sense we know it today because Al Gore had yet to “invent” it.
Jerry Pournelle pointed out several times that, during the 80s, the “Cringely” byline floated between various writers working for Infoworld, including himself and John Dvorak as well as Mark Stevens, the Cringely who runs cringely.com and made “Triumph of the Nerds” for PBS.
I would wait until they are actually shipping and are in people’s hands before ordering. It is only a kickstarter project. I have known several of those projects that were ambitious but never made the full specifications promised. One year battery life would be amazing if they can pull it off. But connecting to WiFi takes power as does recording video. Add in the additional processing for face recognition and other features and that will take some energy to accomplish.
For my situation I had to go with what is available and working now. The Arlo has gotten good reviews and the $100 off at Costco made it a fairly good buy economically.
I have the cameras installed and they seem to work well. Took some adjusting in the settings of the app to stop the multiple motion detection events. Currently the cameras are only active at night. When we go away I will enable the cameras for the time we are gone.
You can also manually activate the Arlo cameras from the app on a phone and see what is going on real time. That will be used while we are traveling to occasionally check on the house and the house sitter. The house sitter will be informed there are security cameras and they can be activated at any time.
I love this blog. I miss RBT and JEP almost every day, and OFD’s classical commentaries led me down more rosey garden paths than I care to contemplate.
It wanders all over the place: from bentonite grounding rods to thoughtful commentary on the state of the Union — or is that a Republic? And the writing is uniformly excellent, none of this internet Newspeak. Mediumwave cracks me up with his off-the-wall comments and the occasional topical cartoon.
Just sayin’, while perusing over my first cup of coffee on what proves to be a nice day in Seattle, home of the WTO riots. Records stores are banding together today for a blowout sale on… vinyl! Would you believe I do not have a copy of Pink Floyd’s _Dark Side of the Moon_?
Surely I must be joking. And don’t call me Shirley.
EDIT: It just occured to me there ought to be a tiny tip jar to help keep Nick from selling dead rats to keep this thing going.
@jim~ oddly enough, I just re-read one of RBT’s comments about monetizing (as the cool kids say) and he was pretty vehemently against anything other than a micro payment system on the order of .oo1c / view.
The costs are small in money and the rewards are pretty good.
n
Just sayin’, while perusing over my first cup of coffee on what proves to be a nice day in Seattle, home of the WTO riots. Records stores are banding together today for a blowout sale on… vinyl! Would you believe I do not have a copy of Pink Floyd’s _Dark Side of the Moon_?
Aren’t the riots an annual May Day tradition now?
I worked in the Bank of America building briefly in 2013. On May 1, the security people told us to go home by 4PM, when the trust fund infants would be home from their barrista shifts at Starbucks and the wannabe Starbucks.
My dad just ordered two of these battery wireless 1080p cameras. They are interesting. Dad wants me to buy two for my office building.
Well, you really don’t order stuff from crowd sourceing. Looks like scheduled production is September. I’ve backed projects that are 6 months to a year late. Many tech projects are over a year late.
That’s why I just like the idea of a tip jar. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve given 3, 4 or 5 dollars to guys who wrote shareware for free and just ask for tips. Who knows? You might collect enough to buy a few more glue traps!
Dropped my phone yesterday and got yet another crack in the screen. There’s been some debate over the value of screen protectors, but my Nillkin saved my bacon yet again. I don’t dare take it off as I think it’s holding the whole phone together.
https://tinyurl.com/y7ond3l8
“I think that the internet should remain under USA control.”
While I understand the reason for saying that, as a European (and ex-American) I do disagree. Not because of the good intentions behind it, but because I trust the NSA, FBI and the rest of the alphabet soup less than I trust just about anyone else. There are too many cases in recent history where they have lowered themselves to the level of the scum they are (supposed to be) working against.
I’m naive, and I know it. But when Trump promised to “drain the swamp”, I really think he needed to fire huge numbers of government workers, in all agencies, but especially in these agencies. Prune back Pournelle’s Iron Law. He didn’t, so I now assume that he has been captured and neutered by the swamp, if he was ever free of it.
I have never cracked a phone screen. I have owned a cell phone since the Motorola Razr came out. Been through several iterations of phones since then. I have owned three iPhones over the years and currently have an iPhone 6S. Never have had a broken screen.
I don’t use a screen protector but do use a protective case made by LifeProof. The model without any screen protection but still keeps the device waterproof. Does this by sealing the case against the edge of the screen.
I have dropped the phone a few times, mostly on carpet, a couple of times on a hard surface. Case seems to have done it’s job well. But I cannot make any real correlation as I don’t know what would have happened in the drops had I not had a case. I am not about to try. Color me stupid at times but not foolish.
It is a sight sometimes to see the students phones at the high school. Almost all of them have cracked screens in some form or another. Some quite severe including one with a chunk missing from the top corner. What is more amazing is that the devices still work with the cracked screens. The kids say they cannot afford a replacement screen so they deal with the cracked screen. Meanwhile I see them at Starbucks getting an expensive coffee. Priorities I guess.
I read it and installed the Firefox add-on “DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials”. This shows (and blocks) trackers. I went through most of my “daily read” sites yesterday and noticed no ill effects.
So… once I have a list of the most common, why not add to my HOSTS file? For example:
127.0.0.1 doubleclick.net
Just an idea.
Since I’ve been running the last week or two with scripts blocked, I’ve noticed how many sites no longer work AT ALL without scripts and how many more don’t work without 3rd party scripts. It’s never enough to allow the base URL, you have to turn on the ‘picture rotator’ script provider and the drop down menu provider and a host of google api cr@p.
If it’s something I need or want, I turn on the least offensive sounding one, and reload. I find that I can often get a page working with just one more script. I NEVER enable the facebook, twitter, etc scripts. What is shocking is when the base page loads with a script or two, you turn on the second or third, and the page reloads with a dozen or more additional scripts. Scripts are loading scripts. Who knows how deep the recursion is?
I got sidetracked in my quest to migrate to Brave, but I clearly need to move it up the priority list.
n
wrt cracked phone screens, if you watch the girls, and some of the boys, they tuck a phone into a back pocket… leaving aside actually sitting on it, it’s incredibly stressing to try to bend the phone into the curve shape that matches the pocket :-0 and most of those pockets don’t have additional room for a stick of gum or a piece of paper.
I’ve cracked a couple screens now. One when I dropped the phone on a sharp rock. One when it slipped out of my pocket and fell getting out of the car. Another pointy rock near the edge of the screen cracked that on. I put scotch tape on the crack to keep it from growing. A new screen was $500 because the glass back was cracked too.
In the year since the price of replacement phones on ebay has fallen 68% and I might get one now. The crack doesn’t affect use or even distract me, so I’ve left it.
n
Be real careful with iPhones on Ebay. Many are stolen and have “Find My Phone” turned on making the devices useless without the credentials. Some of the phones, iPhone and Android, have also had their IMEI number blocked by cell providers and will not allow the phones to activate even if the phone is unlocked. I know of a couple people that got scammed and EBay was of no help as the phones were sold “as is”.
Yeah, learned that lesson many years ago. These would be new phones.
n
If you carefully dig through the specs/information the criteria for the 365-day battery life is ridiculous, basically just a few motion events per day.
The Arlo is a highly recommended system, but even though it is mature the battery life in real life is less than expected, the main complaint. I have considered it. However, my next step is a wired system with an NVR (probably from Costco).
My Ring Doorbell’s battery lasts 2 to 3 weeks. I have a spare to rotate. If I had an Arlo system I would have at least 50% spares to start with an aim for 100% spares.
Since I recently installed a new Orbi Mesh Router I am finally getting the performance from my Ring Cams (door bell and spotlight) that they advertise. The weak link in wireless security systems is the router and your internet speed. You really need to have a router that is not more than a year or two old. And, you need real high speed internet of 20Mbs minimum, not the high speed of 7 to 8 Mbs from the likes of Frontier. Be careful with claims of fiber. Ideal situation is it comes into your house. With our Spectrum/Charter it is second best coming to the “terminal” as they call it and then cable to the house so I am only 50-feet that is not fiber. I get 62 Mbs consistently even with everybody (4) online. I used to have to reset my old router and modem at least weekly, it has been more than a month now without a reset and speeds and connectivity have stayed consistent/on.
WRT Kickstarter — RUN:
I have been taken by two Kickstarters; one a complete rip-off, the other is six months late and delivering “pieces” in drips and drabs. Fortunately I am only down $150.00.
I have the book in my SBR (strategic book reserve). Now I need to read it.
“Ready Player One” as written would have been impossible to film.
Still, it would have been cool to see the Zork planet … or a digitally de-aged Matthew Broderick for the “War Games” puzzle.
I was wrong, I have “Cryptonomicon” and “Reamde” in my SBR.
https://www.amazon.com/Reamde-Novel-Neal-Stephenson/dp/0062191497/
https://www.amazon.com/Cryptonomicon-Neal-Stephenson/dp/0380788624/
I cracked one, in an unusual way. The phone was sitting on a desk or shelf and I’d stood up a handful of steel bed frame rails for transfer to or from the attic and one rail fell over and smacked into the phone’s screen like it had been aimed.
That’s probably not true. I’d guess that most judges are halfway intelligent and sensible. I’d further guess that the halfway intelligent and sensible judges just quietly get their jobs done and don’t go around making outrageous rulings, shooting off their mouths, or getting caught masturbating to kiddie porn on their office computers.
EDIT: It just occured to me there ought to be a tiny tip jar to help keep Nick from selling dead rats to keep this thing going.
I believe that Nick could make a living, of some sort, selling dead rats.
“I think that the internet should remain under USA control.”
While I understand the reason for saying that, as a European (and ex-American) I do disagree. Not because of the good intentions behind it, but because I trust the NSA, FBI and the rest of the alphabet soup less than I trust just about anyone else. There are too many cases in recent history where they have lowered themselves to the level of the scum they are (supposed to be) working against.
Too me, the UN is the least trustworthy organization on the planet. And that is where control of the Internet is headed. I can hardly wait until some Chinese or Russian guy tries to steal my internet domains away from in a foreign court.
wrt cracked phone screens, if you watch the girls, and some of the boys, they tuck a phone into a back pocket… leaving aside actually sitting on it, it’s incredibly stressing to try to bend the phone into the curve shape that matches the pocket :-0 and most of those pockets don’t have additional room for a stick of gum or a piece of paper.
I now put my phone in my back pocket and my wallet in my front pocket. Much more comfortable to my aching right hip. I wonder how far I am away from the dreaded hip purse.
@Lynn
eBay AND taxidermy! There’s a combination for ya.
If they were rodents of unusual size, maybe there’d be interest.
Given that they may have eaten poison, you can’t even try out a BBQ recipe…..
n
Rat on a stick, anyone?
If I was these guys, this is what I’d keep doing….
Announce a rally, get the left wound up, spending Soro’s money like water, burning with rage, and then DON”T SHOW UP.
Do that five or six times, and see if anti-xxxxxxxx keep showing up.
n
The one advantage that I see to US control of the Internet is that we have the First Amendment. Or at least I think we still have it.
We have a long history of innovating and then giving it away. Of assuming No Rules as a default, especially when something is new. And whether we actualize it or not, we have a legal protection for free expression.
Look at the Minitel in France or early teletext systems here for a counter example. Look at the UK or Canada for examples of lack of free expression, even in western democracy. Look at the EU and European history and tradition and mindset with regard to new things and regulations.
The world will regret prying control of the internet out of US hands when they realize what a perfect weapon for surveillance and control they handed to the bureaucrats.
n
Probably only to the Chinese eateries in the area. Otherwise shipping charges would produce a negative gain.
Yeh, I am a raysists pig.
“Just comes off like a candy wrapper….”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcDfWj3Sek0&index=1&list=PLQv9MGcwQg4vvbdVw61mx-XMyhsq9EgmR
Cooking and Eating Rats. Paiute Deadfall Trap in Action Part 3. Bushcraft Survival Skills
Not for the faint of heart……..
n
Rain is coming down now. Got almost an inch so far and it’s hammering down.
n
2.34 inches and now it’s tapering off. Gonna be some flooded areas tonight.
n
2.47 inches at 11:45 and now to bed…..
ham bands are pretty good even with all the rain…
What Nick said is true.
For my phones, I have had good results using a glass screen protector and bumper case. Minimal expense versus repair or replacement.
.mg