Wed. Sept. 5, 2018 – no storm for me…

By on September 5th, 2018 in Random Stuff

77F and 90%RH, but the sun isn’t up yet….

So far, not seeing any effects from Gordon, at least none you’d notice. Fine with me, as we’ve got others forming up and pointed at us.

I note that the march to war continues, on foreign fronts and at home. The geopolitical realignment seems to be proceeding too. Currencies are collapsing. Ships and soldiers are being positioned and trained. Radicals are unseating incumbents. Incumbents almost NEVER lose.

The times they are a changin’…

n

37 Comments and discussion on "Wed. Sept. 5, 2018 – no storm for me…"

  1. Greg Norton says:

    So far, not seeing any effects from Gordon, at least none you’d notice. Fine with me, as we’ve got others forming up and pointed at us.

    I went out to spaghettimodels.com to take a look at what’s going on, and I found breaking non-hurricane news. A380. Spiffy.

    https://twitter.com/SweeneyABC/status/1037341060320686080

    We can predict storms days in advance. Pandemics? Not so much.

  2. nick flandrey says:

    https://abc7ny.com/live-plane-carrying-sick-passengers-lands-at-jfk/4152344/

    This is why the international terminal at IAH has over 100 beds in their quarantine area….

    n

  3. JLP says:

    I wonder how many of the exposed people on the plane will demand that they be allowed to enter the general population immediately?

  4. nick flandrey says:

    Finally hit DailyMail, wonder how long before it’s the headline story?

    n

    And now it’s “100s of passengers” instead of “ten”

  5. JimL says:

    Lots of flailing about – 10 – no 100 – no 10 – no 100. I suspect it’s 10, but wouldn’t be surprised by 100.

    It could be nasty, or it could be nothing. We should be prepared either way.

  6. nick flandrey says:

    “how many of the exposed people ”

    All of them that don’t want free healthcare….

    When I flew back from Abu Dhabi on BA, as we were landing in London the flight attendant passed thru the whole plane with a fumigator. It looked exactly like a can of bug bomb, and filled the plane with smoke. The announcement was designed to reassure while minimizing, and include the advice of covering your mouth with a cloth if you felt you needed to.

    n

  7. Greg Norton says:

    And now it’s “100s of passengers” instead of “ten”

    The downside of an A380. IIRC, it can be configured to carry over 800 passengers, but, flying from the Middle East, I’m guessing there are first class and business class areas as well as staterooms.

  8. nick flandrey says:

    In the mean time, we’ve got Florence (Cat 2) headed toward the coast. Following right behind her, FEMA says we’ve got potential of two more:

    Disturbance 1 (as of 8:00 a.m. EDT)
    • Centered a couple of hundred miles SSW of Cabo Verde Islands
    • Moving WNW across tropical Atlantic Ocean
    • Conditions forecast to become conducive for additional development
    • Tropical depression is expected to form by end of the week
    • Formation chance through 48 hours: Medium (60%)
    • Formation chance through 5 days: High (90%)
    Disturbance 2 (as of 8:00 a.m. EDT)
    • Tropical wave off forecast to move off the west coast of Africa in a few
    days
    • Moving W over far eastern tropical Atlantic Ocean
    • Some development is possible over the weekend
    • Formation chance through 48 hours: Low (near 0%)
    • Formation chance through 5 days: Low (30%)

  9. nick flandrey says:

    Dang it, just when I thought my rat problem was solved, I find two little ones stuck to glue traps. That means a big one somewhere (and a daddy) and more little ones since they never just have two.

    It’s been most of a month or more since I saw any sign.

    Time to change the traps and re-bait.

    n

  10. nick flandrey says:

    And info about the HD from that little lappy for my daughter…

    Seagate tools found nothing wrong, drive has 1.5Tb lifetime writes, 5000+ hrs of runtime. FAILING with periodic rhythmic “chirp” sounds. Turning it over will allow it to spin up and will read again…

    drive is a seagate momentus, 160gb, date code 09471

    So, SSD in that lappy for sure.

    n

  11. Bruce Friend says:

    Went through the same spray can fumigation in NZ on the way to OZ back in the 90’s. Lots of fun! Not surprised by the possible numbers. As travel between once remote areas of the world gets faster, we have to expect that epidemics will spread faster.

  12. nick flandrey says:

    “‘If I could take it back, I would’: Shopper says she deeply regrets taking photos of former Cosby Show actor ”

    — but you can’t. Shoulda thoughta that BEFORE you invaded someone’s privacy by posting them on social media….

    n

  13. JimL says:

    It triggered a post by Mike Rowe, which is how I found it. Rowe is one of my heroes.

    Social media is good for a few things.
    * It’s great for sharing photos of family & friends with family & friends.
    * It’s great for announcing things you want people with a defined set of interests to see.
    * It’s great for sticking your foot in your mouth.

    The first two items are pretty good. That third one, though. That’s a doozie.

    Never say anything, anywhere, you don’t want to hear back. For it will come back at the worst possible time.

  14. Greg Norton says:

    “‘If I could take it back, I would’: Shopper says she deeply regrets taking photos of former Cosby Show actor ”

    — but you can’t. Shoulda thoughta that BEFORE you invaded someone’s privacy by posting them on social media….

    Trader Joes has a “No pictures” policy in the stores … or at least they did.

    Fry’s vigorously enforces their “No pictures” rule. I’ve personally seen cameras confiscated and flash cards removed at the store in Oregon.

  15. mediumwave says:

    For those of you who might enjoy some informed commentary on the Kavanaugh hearings: Observations from the Kavanaugh hearings.. Althouse is a retired law prof.

    For those of you who might find the shenanigans at the actual hearings too tame, here’s a link from the comments: Politician Brawls Caught On Tape Around The World.

  16. nick flandrey says:

    More on the plague flight….

    ” (CDC) said about 100 of the people aboard the plane were being evaluated after complaining of illness, including cough and fever.

    There were about 500 people on Flight #EK203 from Dubai. The plane had stopped in Mecca, where there’s a flu outbreak, Fox News reported.”

    And Aesop says it’s only cholera this time, but I don’t see where he got that….

    n

  17. nick flandrey says:

    I take pictures in stores all the time as a sort of note taking on price or features, or size. Never of people though.

    n

  18. dkreck says:

    I wish Walmart would adopt that policy. I hate seeing my picture show up on those sites.

  19. Ray Thompson says:

    Fry’s cannot legally confiscate anything that belongs to the individual. Fry’s can ask you to leave the store and if you don’t call the police and press charges for trespassing. Fry’s cannot stop you from leaving the store unless they want to get charged with kidnapping. Fry’s cannot put their hands on you unless they want an assault charge. Fry’s has no law enforcement powers.

    Shoplifting is an entirely different matter.

  20. CowboySlim says:

    Fry’s cannot stop you from leaving the store unless they want to get charged with kidnapping

    They always have a pseudo cop at the exit to check your receipt against your bagged items. If I have had to wait too long in the checkout line, I just walk past and say “no”. I have never been delayed.

  21. Greg Norton says:

    Fry’s cannot legally confiscate anything that belongs to the individual. Fry’s can ask you to leave the store and if you don’t call the police and press charges for trespassing.

    Fry’s considers their store layouts to be a trade secret. Also, some of the stores have film props or other items which have restrictions on being photographed by the owner of the IP.

    I assume that the flash cards were returned after the offending images removed.

    When I saw the confiscation happen eight years ago, taking a camera into Fry’s, past the “NO PHOTOGRAPHY” sign was a pretty deliberate act. State of the art for camera phones was the iPhone 3G. The tourists didn’t argue the point, but I got out of there before the conversation concluded.

    I wondered myself if they were really tourists or “tourists”. Wilsonville is an old Incredible Universe store, fairly dumpy, and without an obvious theme like the LA-area Fry’s.

  22. nick flandrey says:

    The San Diego store was an Incredible Universe. It had a bunch of lights and monitors and effects that were just turned off, and left there hanging to rot. I even tried to find someone to buy them as they were some state of the art theatrical moving lights…

    Their product lighting was some sort of horrible bluish warehouse light. I couldn’t read any of the price tags under that light.

    The “exit cop” actually found that I was overcharged on an item, and got me refunded. Shocked the heck out of me.

    n

  23. Greg Norton says:

    The San Diego store was an Incredible Universe. It had a bunch of lights and monitors and effects that were just turned off, and left there hanging to rot. I even tried to find someone to buy them as they were some state of the art theatrical moving lights…

    The Incredible Universe stores were probably Fry’s Waterloo. The chain hasn’t been the same since taking that trainwreck off of Tandy’s hands.

    Ironically, 20 years ago, Tandy couldn’t compete with … Sears!

  24. paul says:

    There was an Incredible Universe in Dallas. I forget where, towards Plano/Garland I think. It’s been a long time. It was a fun place to visit.
    They opened one in Austin. It was nice. Then became Fry’s. Meh. Having my receipt checked when you just watched me leave the checkout pisses me of. Perhaps hire more honest/smarter cashiers? I stop by once in a while… there’s a nearby Taco Cabana that is very good.

    I suppose it’s gone but there was a place in South Austin called “Way 2 Cheap”. It wasn’t much to look at, a hole in a wall old building shared with a dry cleaner and something else. The prices were excellent.

  25. mediumwave says:

    @Ray Thompson: A chance to walk down memory lane: The Burroughs B5500 emulator hosting site. The Wikipedia link has info on the whole range of Burroughs stack machines.

  26. Ray Thompson says:

    @mediumwave: Awesome. Most of my time was spent with the medium systems, B-2900 thru B-4900. Work I did on the B-6700 was to create a compiler for a custom language that would create B-3500 machine code.

  27. Greg Norton says:

    All is not lost.

    “I don’t think anybody expected Mayor Gillum to be the nominee, but now he is, and all of this stuff is going to come under really close scrutiny … And it’s not going to look good for our city.”

    http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/politics/political-pulse/os-andrew-gillum-tallahassee-fbi-20180904-story.html

  28. Lynn says:

    I am planning on going in to the office tomorrow. And getting right back on the programming saddle so I can put out a maintenance release. The office manager has informed me that I will be clean shaven (I have not shaved since surgery day) and that I will be in the office by 10am (early for me !). Since I have not been on Rythmol for two weeks, apparently I can no longer use that excuse for dragging my ass XXX rump in at noon. Sigh, no rest for the weary. Or infirmed.

    I am feeling pretty good now. The incisions in my inner thighs are still very sensitive and bruised. The left wrist looks horrible with a blood patch under the skin about eight inches long and three inches wide but is not too sore.

    Junior Programmer is headed to Silicon Valley as G is sending him a plane ticket for a visit. I wonder if they are going to like his shaved head and foot long beard very much ? He thinks that he will fit right in. Except for the politics, he is to the far right of me.

  29. nick flandrey says:

    Sounds like progress to me! Don’t let the Missus get you up on a ladder just yet!

    Nothing like what Jenny is doing either!

    n

  30. mediumwave says:

    Most of my time was spent with the medium systems, B-2900 thru B-4900. Work I did on the B-6700 was to create a compiler for a custom language that would create B-3500 machine code.

    The B6800 was the only Burroughs machine I programmed on, mostly in COBOL but I did occasionally sneak in some ALGOL. Mostly vanilla business code for the oil company I worked for; my crowning achievement, such as it was, was a text-formatting program written in COBOL which the secretaries seemed to like (This was just before the arrival of PC word processors.) Wasted a LOT of cycles writing ALGOL code to harass the operators via animated text graphics images[*] sent to the SPO. 😀

    [*] My “masterpiece” was a helicopter that flew from right to left across the face of the right-hand SPO terminal and then repeated the trip across the face of the left-hand terminal. The operators’ usual response was to kick me off the machine.

    I got kicked off a lot. 🙂

    (In case anyone’s wondering what management thought of these shenanigans, my boss was the one egging me on! 🙂 )

  31. Greg Norton says:

    Junior Programmer is headed to Silicon Valley as G is sending him a plane ticket for a visit. I wonder if they are going to like his shaved head and foot long beard very much ? He thinks that he will fit right in. Except for the politics, he is to the far right of me.

    Shaved head and beard won’t be a problem.

    As for the politics, he just needs to refrain from comment no matter what happens this fall. I have friends who “fly stealth” out there. The Valley is an echo chamber for really stupid ideas — the people get lucky once and they think they’re gods.

  32. DadCooks says:

    Great news on your progress @lynn. Now don’t show all your scars to everyone at work. It would be terrible if you were hauled off for flashing.

  33. Ray Thompson says:

    The B6800 was the only Burroughs machine I programmed on, mostly in COBOL but I did occasionally sneak in some ALGOL

    I programmed exclusively in ALGOL, DCALGOL on that machine. WFL was needed to run the compiler.

    It was a challenge to produced B-3500 machine code, which was not word oriented, on a machine that was entirely word oriented (B-6700). The compiler was a little over 80,000 lines of code and produced a file that could be executed on the B-3500 without modification. Language had full conditional logic, substantial math package, lots of formatting options for output. Took almost a year to get the compiler in it’s final form and working.

    What was impressive was the compile speed of the B-6700 to compile 80K+ lines of Algol. I seem to remember the compile time was about 5 minutes. Helped that ALGOL only needed a single pass to properly compile as everything had to be declared before it was used, there were no GO TOs used anywhere (don’t even remember if the language supported them).

    I had also written a lot of COBOL on the B-2500 through B-4900 machines. COBOL ran really well on those machines. I also did some systems programming on the medium systems and used BPL as the language. I even wrote a module for the MCP that provided a function the bank needed for their massive printed output.

    Wasted a LOT of cycles writing ALGOL code to harass the operators via animated text graphics images[*] sent to the SPO

    The early years on the medium systems the SPO was a teletype machine. You could not do much. Only with the later releases of the MCP was a CRT screen supported. There was really no direct access to the SPO for the medium systems so such sport was not possible. Had I done that on the B-6700 when I was in the USAF I probably would have been the victim of a court martial or an article 15.

    At one point I was offered a job with Burroughs in Pasadena working on the MCP and associated utilities. Odd interview. Treated me like an employee. Even asked me for some help with a module in the MCP so I slung a few lines of code for them. Later in the day they had a party for an employees birthday and invited me to join in.

    I turned down the job as I did not want to move to CA. A couple of years later my brother was called to provide a tow to a stranded motorist in Palmdale. Turns out the person was one of the people that I interviewed with earlier. He recognized the last name of my brother and asked if we were related. Told my brother they would have offered me twice the original amount, paid for my move, two months temporary lodging and added a signing bonus. They really wanted me to come work for them and were disappointed they were not provided the opportunity to make the additional offer. I guess finding people that were good assembler programmers and knew the MCP really well were hard to find.

    I am still glad I turned them down. I would have had to live in Pasadena for several years, would have lost my job when the medium system line was closed down, or find another job in the company. Burroughs/Unisys being a fraction of what they once were I suspect I would have been shown the door.

    Still, writing Algol on the B-6700 was probably my favorite project of all time. That was one nice machine to work with.

  34. Greg Norton says:

    ALGOL only needed a single pass to properly compile as everything had to be declared before it was used, there were no GO TOs used anywhere (don’t even remember if the language supported them).

    It probably does support GOTO if another mechanism doesn’t exist to exit deeply nested loops.

    The “goto” is C’s dirty secret. GNU C goes even further, allowing an array of destination labels to be specified. “goto array[i]”. Only emulator writers should mess with that feature, but I’ve seen it applied elsewhere in places where performance was critical.

  35. Ray Thompson says:

    It probably does support GOTO

    I just checked, ALGOL does support GO TO and also supports arrays of destinations.

    GO TO IF K=1 THEN SELECT[2] ELSE START

    Is perfectly legal. And not something I would consider using. ALGOL allows expressions in the GO TO statement. From my memory ALGOL allowed expressions almost anywhere.

  36. Greg Norton says:

    Is perfectly legal. And not something I would consider using. ALGOL allows expressions in the GO TO statement. From my memory ALGOL allowed expressions almost anywhere.

    I always associated ALGOL with functional programming and Lambda Calculus research. I didn’t know someone applied it commercially.

  37. lynn says:

    The “goto” is C’s dirty secret. GNU C goes even further, allowing an array of destination labels to be specified. “goto array[i]”. Only emulator writers should mess with that feature, but I’ve seen it applied elsewhere in places where performance was critical.

    Fortran too. We have computed goto’s liberally sprinkled throughout our code.

    GO TO (100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 500, 700, 700, 900, 1000),IOPTYP

    Some of the computed gotos have hundreds of jump points listed in them. It is challenging.

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