Well, feels like mid 60s and sunny with blue sky. Maybe I’ll get the batteries changed in the weather station….
Kids let me sleep in, then I had to supervise the 7yo who decided that she’d make waffles ‘all by herself’ for the family. “No physical help daddy!” Not even reaching stuff on the tall shelves… Then my craigslist buyer showed up. One thing moved from the driveway, hooray!
Plan for the day is work around the house, then softball practice in the afternoon.
It’s a beautiful day.
n
This from my FEMA daily update:
Severe Weather – Tennessee Valley
Current Situation
Severe weather moved through Mississippi and Tennessee valleys; 2 confirmed tornado
touchdowns in MS and 2 unconfirmed touchdowns in AL: Columbus (pop. 24k) and Burnsville (pop.
930); widespread flooding continues statewide across TN; severe Weather Watches and Warnings
continue in AL, MS, TN, and KY.
Lifelines:
Safety & Security
• MS: approx. 300 homes with varying levels of damage across multiple counties; 16 businesses
damaged
• PDAs will begin this morning for MS, and this week for TN
• Wolf Creek Dam and Tim’s Ford Dam in TN at capacity despite ongoing water releases; water
releases will increase, causing flooding conditions downstream
• Mudslides across parts of TN; a commercial business in Hamilton County damaged
Food, Water, Sheltering
• MS: 2 shelters open with 7 occupants; TN 17 with 35 occupants; AL 3 with 6 occupants (ARC
Midnight shelter count)
Health & Medical:
• MS: 2 confirmed storm-related fatalities (Pontotoc and Lowndes counties); 13 injuries
Energy:
• Power outages: minimal outages across the region; restoration ongoing
Transportation
• MS: multiple roads affected with some inaccessible; 1 public bridge destroyed in Clay County,
with unknown impacts to travel
• TN/NC: Interstate 40 near TN/NC border closed with detour in place; road expected to be closed
for a week
• Other states: local road closures due to debris, mudslides and flooding
State/Federal Response
• MS & TN EOCs at Partial Activation
• KY EOC at Monitoring
• AL EOC returned to Normal Operations
• TN & AL Governors declared a state of emergency; MS Governor
expected to declare a state of emergency today
• FEMA Region IV RWC at Steady State, continues to monitor; LNO
deploying to TN EOC today
• NWC at Steady State, continues to monitor
More confirmation of a possible Apple move to ARM.
The move will be simpler than most people think this time around, with Apple now obsoleting laptops after 6-7 years, but I don’t see the company making the transition with desktops. Intel has the performance advantage and could easily run ARM binaries under OS X via a new version of Rosetta.
OTOH, this could be another false alarm, with the leaks intended to motivate Intel to get out of their rut.
https://www.axios.com/apple-macbook-arm-chips-ea93c38a-d40a-4873-8de9-7727999c588c.html
I still believe the rumors about a new line of IT-friendly Intel MacBook Pro laptops, however. Apple will have to sunset support for the 2012 models with the next OS, specifically the “101” 13 inch MacBook Pro which still fetches decent money used as the last Apple laptop with a DVD burner and swappable memory.
Watching Louis Rossman’s videos on youtube, I wouldn’t buy an apple lappy no matter what the cost. He does board level repair on them, and they can be killed by a single crumb in the wrong place. Poor design choices have made some models susceptible to the same simple failure modes. And I have to say, apple lappy users must be filthy pigs. Of course there is selection bias, as he does liquid damage repair, so you see a lot of that, but jeez, the condition of the lappys is just disgusting.
n
Watching Louis Rossman’s videos on youtube, I wouldn’t buy an apple lappy no matter what the cost. He does board level repair on them, and they can be killed by a single crumb in the wrong place. Poor design choices have made some models susceptible to the same simple failure modes. And I have to say, apple lappy users must be filthy pigs. Of course there is selection bias, as he does liquid damage repair, so you see a lot of that, but jeez, the condition of the lappys is just disgusting.
The keyboard is the really weak link on the new MacBook Pros, and they are very susceptible to damage from debris. Long term, there may be a class action suit if one already isn’t rolling.
In the last year, I see a lot more ThinkPads in airport waiting areas where I used to see nothing but Apple logos. I’m not thrilled with my 2017 ThinkPad, especially the durability of the plastics, but Lenovo still builds them with IT departments in mind.
I’ve had my MBP almost two years with no problems (the touch strip gets little use). Or any of our previous Macbooks for 10 years. But, I take care of all of them and watch for abuse (kids, WIFE!) and chastise as appropriate. Apple has been all over the map on pc’s. Give the phones a rest and get back into the pc market. I can’t wait to see what the new Mac Pro looks like. It had better be stellar or that part of Apple is done. Same with the Mini. Lackluster update. You can still build a Hackintosh that is better.
I’ll add that Mac’s are still small potatoes on the virus/trojan front. Nothing in 10 years on the Macs. Imagine what two 24 year old get into on the net.
I’ll add that Mac’s are still small potatoes on the virus/trojan front. Nothing in 10 years on the Macs. Imagine what two 24 year old get into on the net.
I’ve never had a problem with a virus or trojan on my Windows laptops, but I don’t surf porn or download illegal software.
Integrating the browser into the OS was a dumba** idea on Microsoft’s part. JIT engines for JavaScript loaded from the web may yet turn out to be even more of a problem, but all the major players are guilty of that, trying to sqeeze more performance out of “the cloud”.
Lately, on trips, I carry an old Dell loaded with the latest Linux Mint. Zero hassle.
@Greg: agreed on the Linx front, though I use Xubuntu rather than Mint. Since I no longer need any Adobe products and Steam has Linux support…I’m not sure when I last used Windows. Good riddance.
Awful quiet here today.
So….
FLASHLIGHTS !!!
My 2012 MacBook Pro has been rock solid. I’ll be sorry to see it age out, it will still run Xcode, the Simulator and a browser simultaneously without issues.
Only my old XP based Vaio lasted this long.
From yesterday’s discussion: First, I went to Wal Mart this afternoon, and the Scouts were right out front, selling their cookies. Being a soft touch, I paid $4 for a box as I was leaving with my lunch meat and other supplies.
My personal situation, as it relates to the hurricane, is fairly stable. The call center where I was working re-opened on November 1, but I quit effective November 15. The situation was still in flux, and frankly I’d been lied to too many times (welcome to corporate America, it was my first experience with it). I’m now doing the A/R bookkeeping for the local Servpro franchise. This situation is chaos, and doesn’t promise to calm down anytime soon. (I could go on & on about some of their bookkeeping & computer practices, but that’s not the point of this post.) The office manager is not experienced in Accounting or running businesses per se. The money’s not really any better, although the boss seems to understand that money is the best motivator, so if I prove to him that I’m worth more maybe I’ll get it.
The recovery job is going to take a very long time. There are huge swaths of the county where the debris still hasn’t been picked up, ~ 20 weeks after the storm. Once it gets removed, the demolition &/or reconstruction begins. The extreme east side of the county, home to Tyndall AFB & Mexico Beach, haven’t even had power & telecom restored. Unfortunately, the harder hit areas of the county includes many of the poorer areas, and those folks don’t as a rule have access or cash to help speed their recovery along. I think it’s entirely feasible that 20% of the people who lived here on October 1 2018 won’t be here on October 1 2019. Either their lives or their livelihoods have been destroyed, and moving anywhere else, if at all possible, is the only realistic option. Some people are so bad off that they don’t even have that option.
The smaller of the two hospitals now claims that all their beds are open, but I don’t honestly know if all their services are back up & running. The larger of the two hospitals supposedly has 75 beds out of 350 now open, and has instituted quite a few layoffs. Other hospitals around the south have been running ads trying to pick up displaced employees. We have a psych only hospital here, I don’t know its status.
The numbers can be astounding. The City of Springfield is looking at spending more on debris removal than the city’s annual budget. Underinsurance seems to have been the order of the day, both for individuals and for governments. The school board is now saying their total exposure will be at least $250,000,000 beyond their coverage. I’ve been told that one golf course in a particularly hard hit part of town lost ~2600 trees on the course, with at least that many in the surrounding neighborhood.
Anyway, that’s my situation report for right now.
Thanks for the update. Still a long way to go it sounds like.
n
I got a couple of things done today.
Got rid of a riding mower from the driveway. Guy was happy to get it, and I was happy to get it out of the drive.
Got out the power washer and blasted a piece of outdoor furniture I picked up cheap. While I had it out I did some cleanup on my back patio. We get a black stain on concrete that doesn’t come off easily. Bleach solution and a push broom works, but the power washer is SO satisfying. Washed the kids bikes while I was at it. Tomorrow, I’ll use it to wash out the water tank I picked up last week. I ordered a new lid for it to arrive next week too. Funny how the world works, the estate sale I went to yesterday had tons of camping and garage stuff. $3 got me a gallon of cleaner specially made for cleaning, sterilizing, and freshening water storage systems on RVs. Just when I have a tank to clean…. sweet!
Speaking of which, one of the things I got was an extended run aux tank for the honda E3000 inverter generator. I don’t own one, but a friend does. I’ll give it to him this week. Meatspace relationships. Built on mutual aid and thoughtfulness.
If the weather holds, tomorrow may be “small engine repair day”. I’ve got a chainsaw that wouldn’t start, and my gennie didn’t start. The mower and pressure washer did today, but they are both run until dry… I never ran the gennie out last year, and the chainsaw is an auction purchase. We’ll see how it goes, there’s plenty else on the list.
n
@rick h,
did I mention I picked up a Streamlight Survivor LED flashlight?? It was part of an auction lot. Very sturdy. I put it in my Expy, in the back with the preps and spare clothes. Can’t have too many FLASHLIGHTS.
n
@Nick: I am just soooo disappointed. When I read:
” the power washer is SO satisfying. Washed the kids … while I was at it.”
I thought that did sound really satisfying 🙂
Then I saw that you actually only washed the kids bikes. Darn.
Interesting take on the HQ2 deal. From a NY politician, no less.
https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/open-letter-new-york-state-budget-director-robert-mujica-regarding-amazon
Windy as heck right now, and just starting to settle down. Trash & recycling all over the place. Will clean it all up when I get home, as putting it aright now is pretty much pointless.
@JimL: Interesting article, thanks for the link. I hadn’t realized that the local unions had gotten so deep into it. Sad, but typical: unions have become so focused on political power that they end up harming individual workers, rather than helping them. Who wants to bet there were some under-the-table payments from the union to the named politicians as well?
Which isn’t to say that these tax deals make any sense at all. As often as not, the company takes the sweetheart deal as along as it lasts, then closes up shop and moves to the next city offering a deal. Or, like the place in Ohio, the company out-lawyers the government. IIRC, the trick in Ohio was that anyone whose payroll was processed there counted as an “Ohio job” for the tax deal…so the company just moved their entire payroll department to Ohio. Oops…
Karl Denninger has a good post on the inherent inequity involved in deals like this. His main point is that your home grown SMB (small and medium businesses) make up the bulk of employment and they aren’t getting tax breaks, while some out of towner does.
Make your city and tax structure attractive to ALL businesses, and you will see growth. Buying it never works in the long run, unless you are trying to jump start an entire industry (that already exists elsewhere) in your area. Even then, I’d hesitate.
Politicians love these deals as they are spending money they don’t have, ie pretend money, and can point to the jobs created when up for reelection. No one remembers that they gave away the store to get the business.
n
(I see contractors do this all the time. My wife calls it “dropping their shorts” to get the business. They think some money is better than no money, and they may be right in the short term, but it’s deadly to a company and the overall business environment in the long run because then no one can make money at the new lower price.)
I’m not a huge fan of tax deals, and I don’t know that I would have been in favor of the Amazon deal.
But.
They were given a deal. Millions of $ in jobs coming to the area; an area that was stagnating would get a boost. Jobs. Bring in new business. The carry-over would have been tremendous as well.
But NOOOOO. Gotta screw the pooch.
I’m a HUGE fan of the flat tax. Everyone pays. Nobody gets deductions. Even churches & schools. And hospitals. EVERYONE plays by the same rules. But I fear that will never happen.
I’m also a HUGE fan of the Fair Tax. You only pay taxes when you spend money, and EVERYBODY pays. Nobody gets a break.
But all of that is irrelevant. We have a set of rules RIGHT NOW that they were supposed to play by. They worked out a deal that would bring THOUSANDS of jobs and MILLIONS of dollars to New York. Somebody decided he wasn’t lining his pockets enough & tried to change the rules. Good on Amazon for calling them on it & walking away. Let EVERYONE know they’re not playing by the rules. Make it hurt.
Bastages.
“Make your city and tax structure attractive to ALL businesses, and you will see growth.”
This.
“I’m a HUGE fan of the flat tax. Everyone pays. Nobody gets deductions. Even churches & schools. And hospitals. EVERYONE plays by the same rules.”
And this.
Too many special deals, and that money comes from somewhere. Which means that the people not on the take wind up paying more. That’s your middle class and your SMEs.
Taxes are the classic example, both in the US and here in Switzerland: A massively complicated system that mostly serves to employ armies of tax consultants (on one side) and tax clerks (on the other). Neither of which contributes to the economy – it’s all non-productive busywork. Go with that flat tax, and save all that money – meanwhile, the ex-tax consultants can go be accountants for some business that actually does something useful.
@Brad – Exactly that. Taxes are sucking at the teat of the economy, taking off the cream and leaving behind sour offal that hardly nourishes the next iteration.
How great would it be to take those 1.87M accountants and dedicate them to something more productive than taxes?
(Edit: that’s 1.87M accounting professionals in the USA).