50Fand wet. Again. I guess I should be happy it’s not 100F and 90%RH. Yet.
Given the signs o the times, what did you do to prep this week?
We met with a window replacement guy. And we’ll be meeting with another company. I want hurricane and impact rated windows. They are a security measure as well as a hurricane prep.
I bought some more radios. Hamfest is coming up in March, and I need stuff to sell. Or I’ll keep them for myself…
Did the first meeting with a auction company about selling some stuff with them. I need both the money and the space back.
Bought some bulk rice, additional cans, and some pasta. Seriously, it’s cheap insurance. I’m replacing and adding to my food storage.
Bought some accessories to some toys. Time to buy supplies to feed them too. I stopped after the election. That was dumb.
Got number one daughter tested and into additional programs at school. Both are now spending even less time with the rest of their class. I’m keeping a close eye on the school and will continue to make adjustments. Pulling them for private school or home school isn’t an option at this time, but might be. Our district does a pretty good job of providing enrichment and some personalized learning at this grade level.
I was accepted for the city version of the citizens police academy program that I did with our Constables. I expect to learn even more about our local policing and policies. I expect I will not be pleased, given recent high profile F ups. But hey, MEATSPACE.
I urge you to go to local .gov meetings. Connect with your local services. Become known in a positive way to them. Get out of the house and meet people and learn a skill. Get ready for NOT Business as usual.
n
I forgot that I replaced all 4 of my non-stick chef’s pans. They last a couple of years. Supply chain and money are both still working. If you have something approaching end of useful life, now is a good time to replace it.
I also ordered this- https://www.costco.com/Outdoor-Cooking-Pit.product.100458803.html
Wife wanted to replace our fire pit, and I thought the cooking aspect looked cool. Plus, the ‘hat’ might keep rain out of it so it lasts longer. I will def report on this once I’ve tried it.
n
I got 8 more cans of Keystone canned Turkey from Amazon. It was an accidental order. I had them in my cart from a previous session. I was buying a book, and didn’t notice until I already placed the order that the cans were there. I could have cancelled them, but hey, it’s a good purchase.
The book? Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson. My son was going to get it at the bookstore the other day. I said wait, lets check the price online. It was $3 cheaper on Amazon. Another opportunity to not only teach about being wise with your money, and resisting the instant gratification impulse.
I also met the local gas company at the house yesterday. They wanted to verify where the gas meter would be installed. We got that location staked. It will be around a month and a half before it’s installed, but that’s ok. I just want it done before the bermuda turns green so the trench will heal itself fairly quickly.
This is a weird news item–
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6732511/A-group-U-S-mercenaries-armed-arsenal-weapons-return-home.html
Nice gear in the photos. Couple of questions though, Why would secret squirrel mercs have ‘social media pages’? And why would any pro be riding around in cars ‘without license plates’?
And the middle east is gonna get a Biblical Plague ™, kinda, sorta, maybe–
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6733647/Huge-swarms-locusts-descend-Egypt-Red-Sea-warns.html
n
Prepping? All I did this week was grab another 1000 rounds of 9mm brass FMJ from a local sale.
Now that my wife’s health is definitely headed downhill, I have decided to give her the Italian vacation she has wanted for years, now, before she is too ill to travel well. We had this planned and mostly booked 5 years ago but at the last moment, my manager canceled my planned leave to put me on a critical project. We lost almost $1000 in non-refundable bookings. I learned my lesson on getting travel insurance. The wife wants to visit Florence and explore Tuscany before returning to Venice where we spent a wonderful week in 2000 when I was invited to speak at an Email Security conference there. I have been to Venice several times and know to avoid the hot and crowded summer months. I am trying to book us two weeks at the end of April – first of May. One issue is that because of my wife’s diabetes, she requires lie-flat seating for the trans-Atlantic segments. The travel agencies I am talking to all want to book us on Air France 380 for at least one of the long hauls. But Air France is notorious as almost the ONLY trans-Atlantic carrier to NOT have lie-flat seating in Business class on the 380. We are still looking at options. And now I find our favorite hotel in Venice, the Belini next to the train station, is fully booked … sigh. We will have to find a new favorite.
Good luck on trip arrangements, HC.
I also worry about AlGore and Gov. Nuisance being too effective in their war against global warming.
https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-california-snow-20190221-story.html
Hope it doesn’t affect your trip to Venice.
Hope it doesn’t affect your trip to Venice.
My primary concern is flooding from storm surges forcing water into the lagoon. They built a VERY EXPENSIVE and totally ineffective flood barrier some decades back. Like most government projects it was riddled with graft and fraud. Venice was built on swampy islands as a way to avoid the invading Mongols way back when. Those Mongol ponies didn’t fare too well in swamps. Now there are a thousand years of stone work on rotting pillars and foundations forcing everything lower. You may recall one scene in a Bond film where an entire 4 story building collapsed into a canal. It was impressive but silly as the canals are only a couple of meters deep at the most. Fingers crossed for dry weather and off shore winds.
A heads up, costco has the mealsaver vac sealer on sale currently (at least here, in store.)
This is a great way to save money, live better with less, and prep.
Buy in bulk, when on sale, vac seal and freeze. Saves the cost of the machine and bags in a very short time. (if you buy them onsale.)
n
mealsaver vac sealer
HIGHLY RECOMENDED. We have used one for saving left-overs as well as sealing bulk items for prepping.
Questionable Content: are all future bank tellers robots ?
https://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3945
No jobs for you, skin sack !
xkcd: Plutonium
https://www.xkcd.com/2115/
Power orb, heh.
Explained:
https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2115:_Plutonium
The wife wants to visit Florence and explore Tuscany before returning to Venice where we spent a wonderful week in 2000 when I was invited to speak at an Email Security conference there.
We visited Florence and Venice in March 2004 with my parents. Florence was wonderful and expensive. Climbing the tower of Pisa was fun which definitely messed with your balance and perspective. Venice was crowded, no waves at St. Marks, and horribly expensive.
I fell in love with Venice in July of 1968 while touring Europe and the Soviet Union with 11 other 16yr olds. For a young and infatuated teen, Venice was pure magic. I even wandered into an itinerant strong-man exhibition where a huge and hairy man, dressed in the stereotypical one-piece strong-man outfit, was lifting weights one evening in the center of a small plaza and challenging locals to lift more than he. In the end, he loosened a large paving stone and held it over the heads of the small crowd as an incentive to contribute a few lira to his bag. It was a scene right out of a 1920 movie, but for real. Flash forward to the year 2000. We were living in London and, as Messaging Manager for MCI-WorldCom EU, I was invited to present a talk at an electronic messaging conference in Venice. I debated long and hard about taking my wife as I feared that the Venice of 2000 would be touristy and shabby compared to my golden memories. My wife talked me into taking her and I was so glad she did. The conference was in September and the crowds (and heat) of the summer had dissipated leaving the beauty and magic of the old city just as I remembered. We spent our free time exploring the twisted lanes and sudden plazas of old place. Venice in the daytime does show her age, but like an aging beauty, after dark, her flaws are hidden and the magic appears. We had the most wonderful and romantic week ever. While listening to a band one evening in the Pizza San Marco, an elderly stranger gave my wife a rose, telling her in broken english how she reminded him of a long lost love. That was her magic moment. The costs were picked up by the conference so I didn’t worry about the 1 Million lira plus hotel cost.
We visited Florence also in 1968 but my only memories of it are sweltering in the unbearable heat of a Florentine summer in a badly run down hostel without air conditioning. I am looking forward to seeing it in more temperate times.
Because my wife’s diabetes requires her to keep her feet elevated on long haul flights I had to book business class flights so yes, this will be our big ticket item this year. But given that her health is not what it was and she will be starting regular dialysis in the fall, I wanted to give this to her now while she can still enjoy it. It may be the last big trip we take so hang the cost we are doing it up right!
And that sir, is the best reason in the world to spend money. The memories are worth more than anything.
“Intel officials expect Apple to move Macs to ARM in 2020”
https://www.osnews.com/story/129450/intel-officials-expect-apple-to-move-macs-to-arm-in-2020/
Wow, that will be the fourth cpu architecture change for Macs since their beginning.
68000 -> PowerPC -> x86 x64 -> ARM ???
FEMA says More precip and flooding for TN.
Guam and surrounds are about to get hit with a typhoon. 110+mph winds…..
Any readers in that area, please hide or evac and let us know the conditions on the ground.
n
Back from auction pickup, and swing by the HEB grocery.
Beef bottom round roasts were on sale, <$3/pound, so I bought 10 pounds. Whole pork loins, vac pac, <$2/pound so I bought enough for about 5 roasts for us. It's a 2 foot long vac bag.
Also bought about 30 cans of veg and fruit. Several cans of mixed protein and carbs (chicken and dumplings, beef tamales, beanless chili) 5 pounds of sugar.
Also normal pantry- 4x 18 eggs, 2x bread, milk, etc They are packaging sour cream in a squeeze tube now. I prefer it to the tubs. We don't use it fast enough, and the tubs spoil. The tubes last a long time as air and dirty spoons are not getting into the cream.
In fact, we have stuff last much longer on average because I am careful to NEVER put a dirty spoon/fork/knife into a jar. No cross contamination = longer usable product.
n
Wow, that will be the fourth cpu architecture change for Macs since their beginning.
I saw an article the other day that indicated Apple was ready to unite the iOS and Mac OS X program binaries. I expected that once they purged all the 32 bit hardware.
I’ve long suspected that the move to ARM would involve a either a modified version of the LLVM interpreter, lli, which involved a JIT targeting both Intel and ARM, or the linker, lld, running at install time.
Intel would still be the platform of choice for their desktops. There is no substitute for the performance. Apple managed PowerPC and Intel simultaneously pretty well with Rosetta. If they don’t have the LLVM tech, they could haul Rosetta out of the archives and adapt it for ARM.
Hey Mr. Greg, does this mean iOS could eventually run full Mac apps?
I’m sorry – that just doesn’t make sense to me. Why move AWAY from the architecture that EVERYONE else uses & can run on? There are even emulators that will let you run ARM on X86 & X64.
Linus gets it.
https://slashdot.org/story/19/02/22/2015214/linus-torvalds-on-why-arm-wont-win-the-server-space
I bought a SDR dongle. Any tips on using it? I want to run on my MBP, but have a Surface Pro 3 available.
They’re not twins.
https://www.npr.org/2019/02/22/697002320/judge-rules-against-state-department-in-same-sex-couples-citizenship-lawsuit
Hey Mr. Greg, does this mean iOS could eventually run full Mac apps?
Binaries could be shared, but the interfaces are very different. From what I understand, Apple will provide guidance about modifying source to run on both.
I don’t doubt that The Big Nerd Ranch will offer classes. The benefit over their classes vs. their books is the after hours consulting that traditionally accompanies the classes and is included in the tuition fee.
I bought a SDR dongle. Any tips on using it? I want to run on my MBP, but have a Surface Pro 3 available.
I use the Realtek dongle with an old Dell laptop running CentOS 6. Most of my experiments involved reception of ADS-B “Out” for an abandoned thesis about air traffic control data validation.
Any Intel machine from 2010 or later and 4 GB RAM would have enough horsepower for SDR with the dongle. Mac is possible, but it involved a lot of hoops to jump through the last time I looked.
If I have success on Mac I’ll post back. I got Chirp working, so maybe the Mac community is up to date.
“Chuck Barkley Brings Back Late-Night Comedy”
https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2019/02/22/chuck-barkley-brings-back-late-night-comedy/
“RUSH: Grab audio sound bite number three. The TNT network does television coverage of the NBA. Now, we all know what’s happened to late-night comedy. It doesn’t exist anymore. There isn’t any. Late-night comedy has become left-wing agenda-driven anger and hate. Rather than looking for laughs from their audiences, late-night comics and standup comics are seeking applause for when they themselves endeavor to start getting into the hate game:”
“The hatred of Donald Trump, the hatred of Republicans, the hatred of conservatives. Well, this has left a void. There isn’t any humor? There isn’t any humor. There isn’t any professional humor. I think it’s an amazing thing (chuckling) what Donald Trump has done. Look at all of the industries that he literally is doing great damage to. Late-night comics? I mean, these are the people that inherited the mantle and the role of Johnny Carson, David Letterman and all those?”
“You can’t find any humor on these shows! It is nothing but agenda-driven, left-wing hate — as I say — seeking applause. So, since it’s absent there, it surfaces elsewhere. The comedy isn’t gone. It’s just being mined and found by others. Last night, during the halftime show of an NBA game, my old buddy Chuck Barkley just unloaded on Jussie Smollett — and we have the audio sound bite of the highlights. It runs about a minute.”
“BARKLEY: Jussie!
ALL: (laughing)
BARKLEY: You wasted all that damn time and money.
ALL: (laughing)
BARKLEY: You know what you should have did?
SHAQ: What’s that?
BARKLEY: Just went over to Liam Neeson’s neighborhood.
ALL: (laughing)”
“BARKLEY: Two black guys beating a black guy up?
SHAQ: (choking for air laughing)
ALL: (laughing)
SMITH: And having a MAGA hat on!
SHAQ: What kind of hats they have on, Chuck?
ALL: (laughing)
BARKLEY: MAGAs.
SMITH: MAGA hats.
BARKLEY: MAGA hats.”
“SHAQ: You’ pay ’em with cash, Chuck?
JOHNSON: Go ahead, Kenny.
ALL: (laughing)
JOHNSON: I can’t believe you, Chuck.
SHAQ: Would you pay em with cash?
JOHNSON: Chuckster?
SHAQ: You pay em with cash —
JOHNSON: Chuckster?
ALL: (laughing)
SHAQ: — or you writing ’em a check, Chuck?
ALL: (laughing)
BARKLEY: America, let me just tell you somethin’. (laughter)
SMITH: What’s that?
BARKLEY: Do not commit crimes with checks.
ALL: (laughing)
BARKLEY: If you’re goin’ to break the law, do not write a check.
SHAQ: (choking for air laughing)”
“Chuck Barkley Brings Back Late-Night Comedy”
Once CBS fired Letterman, that was pretty much it for the format.
Of course, the argument could be made that late night was done once Letterman went on antidepressants which, in turn, led to the mistress and his downfall. Sometime in the late 90s, after Hal Gurnee retired.
They’re not twins.
https://www.npr.org/2019/02/22/697002320/judge-rules-against-state-department-in-same-sex-couples-citizenship-lawsuit
This is just the beginning of difficulties in our legal system with same sex marriage. Just wait until we get legal polygamous marriages. We’ve already got them in the USA, they just are not legal yet. With as many muslims as we have in Fort Bend County, I am fairly sure that we have quite a few here.
Just wait until we get legal polygamous marriages. We’ve already got them in the USA, they just are not legal yet.
That’s the next step. The same legal arguments for gay marriage apply for polygamy.
With as many muslims as we have in Fort Bend County, I am fairly sure that we have quite a few here.
Samantha Brown’s PBS show went to Houston last year, and her crew carefully shot a visit to Phoenicia so that nary a hijab was in sight. Those guys are good.
I didn’t see nearly as many “Club Hijab” members on a regular basis in Portland and Seattle as I have in Texas. I’ve written before about the coffee clatch that used to meet weekly down the street from our rental in Austin ~ 2014-15.
MrsAtoz was excited to watch “Roma” on Netflix so I put it on last night. Ten minutes later she said it was boring and that was that.
My prepping this week involved buying a tub of Red Vines and a box of k-cup coffee at Wal-Mart today. That’s enough coffee for a month and a half. The vines will last longer because they are in the EDC and not in the house. I can stick a couple in my pocket when I’m out there for something else.
Otherwise I’d eat the tub in a couple of weeks.
I really didn’t like driving today. It seemed stuff kept appearing from behind the A-pillar and side mirrors. Along with the usual “gotta pass and slam on the brakes turn” idiots. On the plus side, traffic lights changed to green as I got to the intersection.
The emu have discovered cat food. It only took four months. I have a fix. I could put fence panels around the table where the cats eat. And have to mess with gates and well, no. My chickens are all gone and their mobile coop is sitting empty…. so, I’ll move it to a somewhat flat space near the feed shed, and put it up on cinder blocks with 2×4 shims. Add a shelf and walla! Emu can’t get to the cat food and the roof will keep the rain off of the food. Might even keep the ants out of the cat chow.
Sounds good to me. Pictures: http://remsset.com/remodeling/Mobile_coopMay2014/index.html (and sitting in front of the EDC). I added another door later so I could reach in to grab the feeder in the top hole nearest the wheel. Missy is the inspector.
I bought a used copy of “Downfall” from Amazon. Four days to get here from San Antonio. All of a 100 miles north. But the PO had to send it to Austin first. The disc looks new, the case was almost to the point of “lay hand on and pick it up” sticky. Bit of Windex and a paper towel…. I don’t know when I’ll get to watch it. It’s in German with sub-titles and all I ever hear about movies with sub-titles is “I can’t watch the movie because I’m too busy reading”. Which makes some sense to me.
Time to feed the dogs.
Picked up my auction stuff, and I scored some nice radios. A nice modern dual band Kenwood mobile, and a very modern Kenwood HT (walkie) with all the APRS extras…
The other stuff was some gun accessories and camping gear, and car parts. The parts should sell well and then the radios will be free. I like free.
n
Wrt subtitles, you get used to it, or at least I do. It’s not as immersive but it’s doable.
WRT SDR dongles, I put AndyLinux on an old Toughbook (c31) and it ran SDR# just fine, even with the waterfall display. I’ve got SDR# running ok on win7 on another toughbook.
I had it running on my desktop but during the reorg, it got put to the side.
There are lots of online guides to setting up the software side, SDR# was the most common free software but there are others. FLDIGI is very capable and popular. Some of the add ins make it much cooler, like D/Ling weather maps from satellites, listening to broadcast FM with RDS info, there’s a scanner add in but I never got it to work for me. The digital modes are supported too. QST magazine had a project for a transverter so you could use it with shortwave and HF ham bands, I’ve got all the stuff but no time.
It’s a lot more fun with an outdoor antenna. Get a nice discone and good cable (with the adapters) and you’ll receive a LOT more stuff. (for cable look on ebay for cisco WAP cables. They are short but VERY high quality and way cheaper than the radio guys want…. higher freqs tend to be eaten by cheap cable and there is a lot of public service radio at 700, 800, and 900mhz. LMR 400 is what most people recommend for cable runs, LMR 600 should be good too. You can get both as cisco airport WAP cables much cheaper…..
n
MrsAtoz was excited to watch “Roma” on Netflix so I put it on last night. Ten minutes later she said it was boring and that was that.
I see one Oscar movie a year on average. This year was “Bohemian Rhapsody”. Last year was “The Florida Project”.
The 20 minute re-creation of Queen’s Live Aid set, included on the “Bohemian Rhapsody” DVD as an extra, is arguably better than the rest of the film. OTOH, I dig the Mike Myers gag.
QST magazine had a project for a transverter so you could use it with shortwave and HF ham bands, I’ve got all the stuff but no time.
I regret not taking my Ettus Research gear from Washington State when we left Vantucky, at least the 800 MHz transciever, capable of running OpenBTS. I heard through the grapevine that the equipment was trashed when my thesis advisor was fired.
[snip] That’s the next step. The same legal arguments for gay marriage apply for polygamy. [snip]
Or we can just abolish the government sanction of marriage. What two or more consenting adults do, and why, shouldn’t be the government’s concern.
government has a role in marriage because it is a legal union as well as a social and spiritual one. Both have access to the money. Both can indebt the other. (If not a word it should be.) Both can legally obligate the other… Assets are held jointly, survivor benefits accrue, etc.
The legal aspects have always been separate from the social aspects, except that the law recognized various methods of entering into the contract, ie, JP or Reverend, or simply live together as spouses. Some people chose a religious trigger, some a purely civil one.
The question to be resolved, is WHEN and HOW is that contract triggered and how is it dissolved?
n
government has a role in marriage because it is a legal union as well as a social and spiritual one. Both have access to the money. Both can indebt the other. (If not a word it should be.) Both can legally obligate the other… Assets are held jointly, survivor benefits accrue, etc.
The legal aspects have always been separate from the social aspects, except that the law recognized various methods of entering into the contract, ie, JP or Reverend, or simply live together as spouses. Some people chose a religious trigger, some a purely civil one.
The question to be resolved, is WHEN and HOW is that contract triggered and how is it dissolved?
One word: kids
Marriages have a legal obligation to support the kids. If the marriage partners do not support the kids then the government becomes the guardian. That is a tremendous and expensive burden. So we have built very exacting legal rules about the kids if the marriage dissolves via an act or if a spouse dies.
In fact, AOC and her ilk want the government to become the legal guardian anyway. That did not go so well in the Soviet Union and other such places like that.
Or we can just abolish the government sanction of marriage. What two or more consenting adults do, and why, shouldn’t be the government’s concern.
When Gavin Newsom starting the ball rolling with gay marriage in San Francisco, it was during the winter months of a down economic period. My back of the envelope calculation gave City Hall about $2 million in direct fees that year along with the sales and other assorted taxes with the hospitality industry. Issuing paper and performing the ceremony was big money for the city.
Texas recognizes common law marriages if you aren’t into paper, but the rules are very specific.
The emu have discovered cat food. It only took four months. I have a fix.
Every wild thing loves cat food. Especially raccoons. And now Emus.
I buy the dry cat food at Tractor Supply. It’s the “multi-flavor and colored” kind. I don’t care for the smell but the cats like it. I guess they do, it’s all they get. The dogs won’t eat it. When the local Tractor Supply carried their Cat Chow knock-off, the dogs really liked that. It tasted like Cat Chow.
Raccoons seem to eat everything. Perhaps even cats, I’m missing a couple.