83Fat 8am. No camps or classes to wake me up.
So I’ve got the kids and will be doing stuff around the house.
Since we’re going on our ‘summer vacation’ to visit family, there is a bunch of stuff to do, on top of normal stuff.
No rest for the wicked.
n
No rest for the weary either
Since we’re going on our ‘summer vacation’ to visit family, there is a bunch of stuff to do, on top of normal stuff.
West Central Florida has returned to a normal sumertime pattern of afternoon rains. Sarasota should be cooler than Houston.
The yard at our old house outside Tampa actually looked decent, unlike when we lived there during the early 2000s drought and I regularly got death threats, implicit and sometimes explicit, about my sod from the SpecOps freak show REMF neighbors.
We’d consider going back to FL, but not to Tampa.
Head’s up — the rental car infrastructure at TIA changed dramatically in March. Consider yourself warned.
I needed a distraction this weekend. Lots of stressors lately with relationship, work, money, and generalized anxiety over the state of many things. So on Saturday while at Lowe’s buying a new shower head for the upstairs bathroom I also bought a mason’s hammer.
Sunday I grabbed the hammer and went out to a nearby place I know and spent 5 hours in the blistering sun hunting for fossils. I enjoyed every minute. I used to do it as a kid and a couple of times as an adult but it has been well over a decade. I didn’t have a care in the world as I dug at the earth and chipped stones. I found several very nice leaf impressions and a few pieces of pyrite with big chunks that shined like real gold. I smiled for the first time in a week.
Even though I was in direct sun and the temp was ~85F it wasn’t too bad. A hat with a brim and mesh sides keeps the sun off my head and face. Cargo shorts and a shirt of modern “moisture wicking” fabric works great. Drank a lot of water too.
This morning I gave a couple of the leaf fossils to a coworker who has a daughter (~7 years old) who has announced she wants be a paleontologist.
I almost forgot — La Teresita near TIA hasn’t changed much.
I hadn’t been in eight years when we stopped in after getting off the plane in Tampa.
This trip will be to Michigan. With a side trip to Chicongo to visit mom and dad. Dad’s been sick again. Same time as last year coincidentally. Hopefully less dire this year.
n
This trip will be to Michigan. With a side trip to Chicongo to visit mom and dad. Dad’s been sick again. Same time as last year coincidentally. Hopefully less dire this year.
Better now than January.
One of our group at work was in Seattle doing an equipment install yesterday, departing today. I don’t think she quite believes me when I say that the upper 80s low humidity weather she saw this weekend in the city will be gone in a month, replaced by conditions that make parkas supplant handbags as the female status symbol downtown by the end of October.
Lots of new updates for my Surface Laptop. Many of them are firmware updates to multiple components including network and video. Just today there was a major firmware update to the system, as in the BIOS or whatever it is called now.
The wife just came in from a shopping trip and remarked how hot it was, but how can that be when the outside thermometer only says 77°F. So I had her take my non-contact infra-red thermometer and take the temperature of various outdoor surfaces. She came in with a “revelation look” on her face. All surfaces were 10°F or more than the outside thermometer. I then had to go through an explanation of retained heat and reflected heat. How long she will remember is another question.
We are under an Extreme Heat Warning again today, it extends into tomorrow night. Not unusual for this time of year. The NWS says it will be 100 to 108. I predict 110°F+.
The NWS forecast for this area is always off. Our closest station is in Richland WA (the Richland Airport, RLD), but we have a bazillion micro-climates here in the Tri-Cities (actually 5 or 7 depending on what you consider a “city”) and Richland is way off from the area averages (cooler, less windy, drier). All the real farmers/orchardists around here have their own weather stations (most use Professional Grade Davis Weather Stations) and many years of data so they can better manage their crops (unfortunately most do not connect to Weather Underground anymore).
BTW, IMHO, IBM has no business owning Weather Underground. They should just stick to the tech businesses they already have screwed-up.
Interesting story there @JLP.
@Greg Norton, you caught me in another one of my senior moments when my brain confused blue stripped logos. Thanks for getting me back to reality. However the same could be said for AT&T before they went to the “Death Star” logo.
BTW, IMHO, the Death Star (IBM for those of you in Rio Linda) has no business owning Weather Underground. They should just stick to the tech businesses they have screwed-up since before they changed their logo.
IBM doesn’t have any business owning a lot of the product lines they have bought and screwed up, starting with Rational.
When I refer to the Death Star, I’m talking about AT&T. There might be some confusion since I worked on IBM’s NetClient VPN for a decade while serving aboard the Death Star.
“Cop Distracted by Phone Hits Me Head On”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoSOEtzWPlU
Good night ! If you cannot trust the cops to drive undistracted, who can you trust ? Nobody !
Note, I did not listen to the audio so I have no idea what expletives were said.
Good night ! If you cannot trust the cops to drive undistracted, who can you trust ? Nobody !
I can’t quite make out what the cyclist says will happen to the cop if the bike frame is cracked. A nice carbon fiber frame is easily $10k or more.
Austin goes way beyond Texas law with restrictions on even touching a handheld device while driving.
When we first moved here, the cops used to set up what I call “Waze Traps” at the city limits on I35. Dunno if they’re hypocrites about it since I try not to venture into the city much beyond for work.
As I’ve written before, in Austin, I don’t think the obession with touching the phone is an issue with texting as much as law enforcement’s snit fit reaction to the current Cannonball Run record set in 2013 with documentation of the run and speed trap data provided courtesy of an app from one of the online map players.
Also — new Exploder cop version. My wife has trouble at times hitting curbs and parking accurately in her 2016. The vehicle is wider than her 4Runner was, but the seat is lower. I hate the vehicle’s visibility, and I’m 6′. I’m not trying to justify the cop; he should know the vehicle requires more attention than his previous ride, probably a Crown Vic.
If there had not been any video the officer would have claimed the cyclist was at fault and rode in front of the officer. Happens often when an officer commits a violation and causes an accident the officer is never found at fault.
Case in point. There was a short section of highway that involved a curve where people would take the curve at the posted speed limit, spin out, and crash. People had complained for years the asphalt was too slick. State and city claimed people were driving too fast.
Then a city police officer did the same thing, spun out and crashed. Within two weeks the entire section had been repaved because according to the officer “the asphalt was too slick for the posted speed”. Amazing that a dozen people were incorrect and the officer was suddenly correct.
Another time I saw an officer run a red light and strike a vehicle at a slow rate of speed. The officer immediately claimed the other person ran a red light. I said nothing until another unit showed up. I told the responding officer that the first officer’s light was red. I was immediately told I was a liar. Unknown to us another individual had a video camera and showed the video to the responding officer. Sure enough the light was red for the first officer. They should have waited until all the reports were filed, and signed, then got the first officer for perjury.
There have been other crashes here involving police officers. The vehicles have dash cameras. Amazingly the camera malfunctioned, were not turned on, video was accidentally deleted, etc. Many excuses whereby the officer is not considered at fault and the other motorists gets charged with the accident. Investigating officers always, always, side with fellow officers regardless of the facts.
I got a ticket this weekend… a cop driving an unmarked car pulled out from the shoulder in front of me on the freeway. I stomped on the brakes so as not to hit him and flashed the lights to let him know I was there. I got a ticket for “Failure to dim lights”. I asked if he had written himself a ticket for dangerous driving and he wouldn’t answer. I saw him smirk as he walked away. That guy shouldn’t be a cop.
Many excuses whereby the officer is not considered at fault and the other motorists gets charged with the accident.
IMHO if the officer is involved with an accident and the camera footage is not available, that is prima facie evidence that the offics is at fault. I’ll even go as far as say that the evidence was tampered with absent another documented reason.
I got a ticket this weekend… a cop driving an unmarked car pulled out from the shoulder in front of me on the freeway. I stomped on the brakes so as not to hit him and flashed the lights to let him know I was there. I got a ticket for “Failure to dim lights”. I asked if he had written himself a ticket for dangerous driving and he wouldn’t answer. I saw him smirk as he walked away. That guy shouldn’t be a cop.
File a complaint against the officer at the police department. A good department will investigate it. A bad department, well you already know one of them sucks.
Looks like the ebola came back negative. FFS, the guy was handling the dead in an ebola zone and he just waltzes onto a plane and comes home?
n
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you your 2020 dumbocrat vice presidential candidate. “The Ignorant Incoherence of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez”
https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2018/07/30/the-ignorant-incoherence-of-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/
and
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2018/07/30/brutal-examining-ocasiocortezs-painful-answer-on-funding-her-socialist-utopia-n2504457
“After muttering some words about “back of the envelope” calculations and touting a discussion with a Nobel Prize-winning economist, she exclaimed that if wealthy people and corporations would just pay their “fair share,” her dreams could become realities.”
Tax the rich until they ain’t rich no more !
We are all Venezuela !
“Study: ‘Medicare for all’ projected to cost $32.6 trillion”
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/study-medicare-bill-estimated-326-trillion-56906940
“Sen. Bernie Sanders’ “Medicare for all” plan would increase government health care spending by $32.6 trillion over 10 years, according to a study by a university-based libertarian policy center.”
The estimate is low like all other governmental programs. The annual cost increase would probably start at $4 trillion and ramp at 5 to 10% per year due to the aging population. Unless, benefits were denied like the UK and Canada does.
Hat tip to:
https://drudgereport.com/
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you your 2020 dumbocrat vice presidential candidate.
This is the person the DNC Chair and, of course, the MSM, call “a political rock star.” She puts the “dumb” in Dumbocrat. I wonder if she will even get elected. The 2020 Dumbocrat primaries are gonna be pretzels and Moxie.
Miss ya OFD.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you your 2020 dumbocrat vice presidential candidate. “The Ignorant Incoherence of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez”
Another spoiled Dem millenial is trying the same thing in WA State. It helps to live in the district. Half a mile makes a huge difference as that part of the Seattle Metro gentrifies.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/progressive-challenger-hopes-to-repeat-ocasio-cortezs-success-in-washington-state/
Talk about cord cutting
http://fortune.com/2018/07/29/spectrum-communications-kicked-out-new-york/
Well won’t happen I’m sure but maybe they got their attention.
I don’t understand this story–
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6005831/California-wildfires-claim-lives-crews-make-progress.html
I don’t understand why the woman didn’t attempt to leave at ANY POINT.
I don’t understand what “Bledsoe, … was standing just down the road from his home in Redding as a wall of flames closed in on it, but he said police stopped him from going inside” means. Was he in handcuffs? Locked in the sherrif’s vehicle? WTF man, you are gonna stand there and let your wife and kids burn?
I don’t understand WTF is up with the sherrif’s dept, if they KNEW SOMEONE WAS TRAPPED within sight of them.
Is this the endgame? Our men have been so passivized that they’ll stand there talking on a damn PHONE while wife and kids die?
I’m sick to my stomach.
n
Nick this guy lost his wife and great-grand kids. He was pretty old. She had covered the kids with wet blankets then herself. I saw him on the news several times, very sad all around. If you’ve ever been confronted with a wall of flames in a wild land fire I can tell you it’s effin’ scary and in the six seasons I did it I never saw one as big as these. I wouldn’t second guess anyone’s intent or sorrow.
Bastages.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/07/20-states-take-aim-at-3d-gun-company-sue-to-get-files-off-the-internet/
I’ll be driving to NY this weekend to time a race. I suppose I should download a bunch of files while I’m there.
“…shall not be infringed.” I can hardly wait for the governor to be voted out.
“If you’ve ever been confronted with a wall of flames in a wild land fire I can tell you it’s effin’ scary and in the six seasons I did it I never saw one as big as these. I wouldn’t second guess anyone’s intent or sorrow. ”
Still can’t understand what the sherrif’s deputies were doing.
n
We do know that when dumbocrats use the term “fair share” it translates to: “You are not paying enough.”
WRT wildfires:
With the way surface and a multitude of upper altitude wind streams (not just the Jetstream, there are others you know) and our topography we have an interesting situation going on. Smoke from wildfires in Calfornication, Ore-way-gone, British Columbia, Alaska, and yes folks, Siberia has been spiraling down on the Columbia Basin (what our area is commonly referred to. See the map linked on “Columbia Basin” above for an understanding of what the area encompasses.
As to be expected, many people have burning eyes, cough, and trouble breathing. The air all around here is a light brown and at times you can even see some particulate.
I think it’s more along the lines of “You are making too much and I want half of what you make while I nothing.”
We do know that when dumbocrats use the term “fair share” it translates to: “You are not paying enough.”
The translation is actually, “What is left of the middle class is not paying enough.”
Wealthy people and corporations have tax lawyers exploiting loopholes.
My wife half jokes about opening a bakery if socialized medicine comes to pass, maintaining a license to just take care of our needs. She and all of her friends have already “shrugged” at rural and semi-rural medicine.
Concierge medicine.
n
“Wealthy people and corporations have tax lawyers
exploiting loopholesfollowing the law as written.”A ‘loophole’ is nothing more than an exemption you don’t like.
Like all those people getting “earned income credits” and receiving more back than they paid in…. taking advantage of the loophole instead of following the rule- if you earn income you pay taxes on it.
n
added- in a free country, anyone can hire a tax lawyer/accountant/enrolled agent and work to minimize their taxes too. If you aren’t, and you file anything other than 1040EZ then you are missing out.
“The Pension Hole for U.S. Cities and States Is the Size of Japan’s Economy”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-pension-hole-for-u-s-cities-and-states-is-the-size-of-japans-economy-1532972501
“Many retirement funds could face insolvency unless governments increase taxes, divert funds or persuade workers to relinquish money they are owed”
“Many cities and states can no longer afford the unsustainable retirement promises made to millions of public workers over many years. By one estimate they are short $5 trillion, an amount that is roughly equal to the output of the world’s third-largest economy.”
“In Kentucky, a major pension plan covering state employees had about 16% of what it needs to fulfill earlier promises, according to the Public Plans Database, which tracks state and local pension funds, based on 2017 fiscal year figures. A fund covering Chicago municipal employees had less than 30% of what it needed in that fiscal year, according to the same database. New Jersey’s pension system for state workers is so underfunded it could run out of money in 12 years, according to a Pew Charitable Trusts study.”
“When the math no longer works the result is Central Falls, R.I., a city of 19,359. Today, retired police and firefighters are wrestling with the consequences of agreeing to cut their monthly pension checks by as much as 55% when the town was working to escape insolvency. The fiscal situation of the city, which filed for bankruptcy in 2011, has improved, but the retirees aren’t getting their full pensions back.”
You know, the dumbocrats make lots of promises. Rarely do they pan out.
Hat tip to:
https://drudgereport.com/
Yes, but note that wealthy individuals and corporations can buy those exemptions. “The finest government money can buy” and all that.
There is a reason why cops lie: Maintenance of command authority.
If they were to admit truthfully to their mistakes, then those that they ticket or cite would accuse them of always being wrong. They would also tend to ignore their advice and suggestions in other instances.
Remember what OJ’s liars said in the first trial WRT LAPD Det. Mark Fuhrman: “… if it can be demonstrated that he lied about one thing, then it is reasonable to assume that he is lying about everything. Or, if one is mistaken about one thing, he could be assumed to be mistaken about everything.
Mm-hm. Cryin shame that in order to not “appear” to be wrong, they have to lie.
Concierge medicine.
Go back and find a copy of Hillarycare. They were going to force everyone onto the plan by outlawing private cash payments for care.
They may throw the insurance companies a bone by letting them offer supplement plans for “Medicare For All” similar to how Medicare works today.
WRT the fire in Redding CA, where the man (Bledsoe) lost his wife and two grandkids, there are several reports similar to this:
“Bledsoe says he tried to return but the road was blocked with cars and flames prevented him from returning on foot.”
I suspect that it would have been too late to save them, even if he could get through the flames. Or he would have also been killed.
Sad story.
Very sad, and avoidable.
Why did they not leave?
Why did the sheriff not evacuate them? When SoCal burned, the deputies went door to door… probably saved my buddy and his family’s lives.
Are the front yards impassible to vehicles?
It BOTHERS me. There is always another way. If they had time to call, and it sounds like the conversation was lengthy, then there MUST have been another option.
n
When even the WSJ sees the problem and not just a bunch of fringe articles on Sovereign Man and Zerohedge, then the problem is JUGE and undeniable. 20years ago my dad’s pension went bust. The federal guarantee caps out at IIRC $48k which is much less than my dad was owed.
Since the guarantor is also insolvent, whichever piggies get to the trough first will get fed, and all the rest will get NOTHING.
n
Looks like they were burning the midnight oil last week at Waggener Edstrom.
I assume Microsoft still runs PR through them. This smells like a WE piece.
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3293429/microsoft-windows/with-daas-windows-coming-say-goodbye-to-your-pc-as-you-know-it.html
Update: Yup, WE is still Microsoft’s PR firm.
The federal guarantee caps out at IIRC $48k which is much less than my dad was owed.
I read $34k at some point in the last couple of years in relation to the IL pensions. Either one is a far cry from the six figure public pensions I saw getting spent in FL over the last 20 years, turning the orange groves into retirement communities like The Villages.
And *EVERY* Presidential campaign as well as candidates for Governor and Senate in FL have to make at least one trip to the Villages every election season.
Even though the state manages its own funds in a realistic way, threats to public pensions in places like IL and MI will turn FL real blue real fast.
First time the os costs a business money, they’ll sue the socks off MS if MS is maintaining the desktops.
And that would push me entirely to linux or android. NO WAY will I put up with a subscription desktop.
n
And that would push me entirely to linux or android. NO WAY will I put up with a subscription desktop.
It is a WE trial balloon. Redmond is going to have a hard enough time getting everyone off of Windows 7 in two years.
I have a “No Windows None Of The Time” laptop which I take on trips lately. The experience isn’t painful, but making it work requires a lot of time at home.
I need laptops that JUST WORK. I don’t really care what they run, but given that most of the software I use is Windows based, I don’t have a lot of options here.
One of the companies I work with is working on migrating the Windows / Foxpro software I use to a web interface. If/when they get it working well, I’ll probably migrate to it for the bulk of my work. But there are times when I don’t have internet access, so desktop will still be required. That still means Windows.
No, I’m not happy with the idea of DaaS. If I could turn off updates entirely I would. These latest Windows 10 updates have been almost more trouble than they’re worth.
One of the companies I work with is working on migrating the Windows / Foxpro software I use to a web interface. If/when they get it working well, I’ll probably migrate to it for the bulk of my work. But there are times when I don’t have internet access, so desktop will still be required. That still means Windows.
Microsoft’s corporate customers are already on the phone to Redmond.
One of the companies I work with is working on migrating the Windows / Foxpro software I use to a web interface. If/when they get it working well, I’ll probably migrate to it for the bulk of my work. But there are times when I don’t have internet access, so desktop will still be required. That still means Windows.
Microsoft’s corporate customers are already on the phone to Redmond.
I do not understand why Microsoft does not want to create “new” versions of Windows ? You know, Windows XI, Windows XII, Windows XIV, etc…
Plus maybe a Windows 7+ retro.
Windows ME+ retro.
Windows 7, like Windows XP before it, is a benchmark. I have a handful of apps at my 9-5 that require a Windows 7 desktop. Simply don’t work correctly with 8 or newer. For those I’ll be shelving all of the retired 7 machines for replacement.
When a replacement machine costs $100,000+ to run new software on new hardware, penny pinchers will run Windows 98 long after it’s dead & gone. (That machine finally died, so I don’t have to worry about it anymore.) I have similar situations with our Windows 7 machines and the software they run.
If, like me, you hate tiles and the ‘app’ paradigm, you will stay with win7 or possibly win8 with classic start menu.
This machine is win8 and I occasionally have issues where it does the win8 tiles stuff. Without a touchscreen, there are no intuitive ways back.
HATE HATE HATE tiles.
n
If, like me, you hate tiles and the ‘app’ paradigm, you will stay with win7 or possibly win8 with classic start menu.
This machine is win8 and I occasionally have issues where it does the win8 tiles stuff. Without a touchscreen, there are no intuitive ways back.
HATE HATE HATE tiles.
I was demoed the first version of Windows by a Compaq salesman in 1985. Windows 1.0 was tiled. It was weird looking to have four apps running in four squares on the screen, all bounded together. Overlapping windows is definitely much better.
We bought the Compaq luggable though. 20+ lbs with a green monochrome screen in a sewing machine case. I wrote my Steam Tables on it while on the road at least two weeks of every month for a year and a half.
https://www.winsim.com/steam/steam.html