Cool and damp this am. Didn’t get to the weather station batteries.
Obligations. Where do they come from, how do we assume them? How do we know we have them? I guess it’s a bit like the definition of pornography- you know it when you see it.
Jerry Pournelle used to wonder where his apparent obligation to provide money for welfare and social services came from. Of course, what happened there was that someone ELSE obligated him.
I’m thinking more of self imposed obligations, or the obligations of history and tradition. What were the King’s obligations, and where did they come from?
What are our obligations in an emergency or disaster? With state licensing, some medical people assume an obligation to help strangers, they have a ‘duty to aid’. Some people assume a ‘duty of care’. Recently someone proposed legislating a ‘duty’ to provide aid after no one stopped to help an injured person. We argued a bit in CERT training if as actual first responders we were now obligated to help. (CERT’s official policy is that your responsibility is to yourself, your family, and your community, in that order. Harris County TX, in the person of the Fire Dept official who was training us, said that we DID have a duty to respond. We were obligated to help by virtue of our training, and the recognition of our somewhat elevated status (we get id cards and vehicle stickers.))
I feel a number of obligations every day. Today, I have the obligation of honoring the life of another family member whose time among us has ended. She was a distant relative, but a constant part of our lives, as all of our family was close when I was growing up. She had an exceptional personality, full of light, curiosity, and intelligence and it was a joy to see her. She seemed perfectly suited and content with her role in the family, community, and life.
So where did I get the obligation to put everything in my busy life on hold and spend time and money traveling to her wake and funeral? I don’t know, but I feel it deeply.
n
(all this is by way of saying, I’m scrambling to get things done before taking the trip on Thursday. Commenting will therefore be lighter, and posts might be late Fri and Sat.)
In keeping with our late host’s annual notation it’s 0x44 for me today. Way too much to do, but dinner at Woolgrower’s Basque tonight.
well Nick, the opposite is to be an (or a) hermit. There is always a struggle between Hobbes vs Kant (or whomever).
ayj, yes, that is it. You either participate in society/culture/family/community and accept that you become mutually obligated through both formal and informal ties, or you hide in a cave.
Even the man hiding in the cave may have obligations though, he is just avoiding them.
n
Please stop trying to save me…
http://adaptivecurmudgeon.com/2019/03/23/the-aztecs-al-gore-and-aoc/
and a new ‘Woodpile Report’ is out
RE: Obligations
On the commute this morning I was mulling over something similar. I was awoken 45 minutes early today by an automated MIRT (IT Emergency call). I was in very deep sleep and it took me minutes to get my mind awake enough to understand the “emergency”, which was a user in France wanted InfoSec to allow him to use a generic account without any password. Being in the on-call rota this week I was obligated to take the stupid call. As I struggled to keep my eyes open on the commute, I grumbled that I never get to sleep until “I” want to get up. Something or someone is always making me get out of bed before I am ready. I am looking forward to retirement if only for the possibility that one day I may be allowed to sleep in.
I only get to sleep in on weekends, and I’ve been essentially retired for years.
My days are full. My nights too.
When you start longing for the crash, so that you can stay home and read all day, you know you are in trouble.
n
Having been retired for 2.5 years now I can inform you that you will be amazed at how sleep deprived you are currently. The ability to sleep in, take a nap when sleepy, go to bed when you want without someone else’s schedule is awesome. I am now consistently getting 8 hours or more of sleep a night and feel much better for doing so. I am also sleeping better, as in no wakeups during the night, even for pee breaks.
However you still need something to do to keep yourself busy. I sub and work at the church. A part time job was not an option as there is a schedule involved. With subbing I can choose to not take the job with no consequences.
Thanks Ray … gives me hope.
My “retirement” means taking over managing my businesses from my son who is anxious to take his boat to sea. He is keen to get me “retired” in the next year so he can move to Florida. My retirement income will come from running 20 ATMs and managing our Self Storage facility. Filling the ATMs takes about 3 days a week and running the self storage is mostly answering calls and showing up when people want to rent a unit. The rental houses have a management firm so while I will be busy I won’t have the DEMANDS on my time I have now. Sleeping through the night is a problem as I spend much of the night worrying about stuff, mostly stuff I can’t change. I am seriously hoping my employer gives me early retirement as this would include a significant package allowing me to pay off my new retirement home. I have just paid off all my credit card debt and so have fewer money concerns.
<i.When you start longing for the crash, so that you can stay home and read all day, you know you are in trouble.
Longing for a crash is not healthy. Galt’s Gulch doesn’t really exist.
Yes, and without all the time and work saving robots in our homes the old saw about the farmer works “from sun up to sun down” returns with a vengeance. Subsistence cultures don’t have “free time.”
n
Humans are social animals. We are hardwired for it.
I think quite a bit of the anomie and attraction to the extreme left and right is due to lack of social connection. Social capital is real. The LDS church made it an explicit part of their beliefs. Groups like Rotary, scouting, fraternal/sororal groups, hobby clubs, etc. all fed into building it. Online communities can help, but face-to-face contact is key for building bonds that touch us deeply. Even someone as libertarian as Heinlein believed in community, paying it forward.
It also builds trust in those around you. A reciprocal feeling of trust allows smooth and pleasant social interactions with people not of your community and that you may never encounter again.
“Please stop trying to save me…”
Part of the problem is also the fact that politicians are by definition both smooth talkers and power hungry. They want big government, because that gives them more power. They know how to “sell ice to Eskimos”, and making people scared is an excellent, proven strategy.
Just look at New Zealand: politicos are going to exploit the hell out of that tragedy, to push gun control and censorship. All for our own good, of course…
Yes, and without all the time and work saving robots in our homes the old saw about the farmer works “from sun up to sun down” returns with a vengeance. Subsistence cultures don’t have “free time.”
Of all outlets, “Star Trek Discovery” recently touched on 21st century humans surviving at a subsistence level after escaping the apocalypse on Earth. It isn’t something to wish to happen to your community.
Just look at New Zealand: politicos are going to exploit the hell out of that tragedy, to push gun control and censorship. All for our own good, of course…
I’ve never understood the prepper fascination with New Zealand. I imagine that it is a nice place, but I don’t understand why many people believe it will survive a crash unscathed and with an intact democracy.
In my case almost all of that went away. I used to solve coding problems in my sleep, worry about money, worry about nothing. Hard to shut the brain down for the night. Now that is not an issue. Fall asleep within minutes. Few nights of worrying about anything.
The most difficult part has been letting go of my invested money and savings. I still have this urge to not spend, not draw from savings, live on what I have coming in through SS and a couple of part time jobs (subbing and church). That mindset is difficult to change. I can spend an extra $20K a year and have enough for 30 years. That would put me at 98 years old and there is NFW I will live that long. I have those funds because of those habits and it is difficult to change.
Jussie Smollett Charges Dropped; ‘His Record Has Been Wiped Clean’
Is anyone surprised?
“Apple TV Is the Death of Apple TV”
https://www.pcmag.com/commentary/367380/apple-tv-is-the-death-of-apple-tv
“For years, Apple TV has primarily been a media streamer, a physical device connected to your TV to let you watch iTunes movies and TV shows on the big screen. That changed this week as Apple started framing Apple TV purely as a service platform.”
I realize that this is noteworthy but I cannot figure out what is really going on here. Other outlets say that Apple is going after Netflix but that really does not make sense.
Is anyone surprised?
Nope. The DA should be fired for bringing 16 charges and then dropping them. Probably some high faluting ProgLibTard involved.
Is anyone surprised?
No. Smollett would have started singing about who put him up to the gag if he faced real prison time.
His career is done.
From yesterday, dkreck,
A few of my rather isolated thoughts. A friend bought an expensive Chromebook. I think it was around $1k before a hefty discount, but he often buys expensive things at a good price. He loves it, but he has 100 Mb broadband. At his encouragement, I tried to replicate the experience with my 3 Mb service using Google Docs. Fail! My experience was so agonizingly slow, I gave up trying to get any meaningful work done. I realize my test might not have been relevant, but also that he is not about to bring his shiny toy to my home to show me how good it is. We just don’t do that.
Meanwhile, I eagerly wait for a polished version of Chrome OS that can run on an ordinary PC. I have a few lying around that would make good candidates for learning, but it would have to gain mainstream support for my needs. I still have hope for broadband here. I also think a solid build of Android OS for Intel x86 might be closer to reality. I haven’t looked in a while, but last time it was still pretty green.
I do volunteer IT support for a local service organization. Over the years, they have migrated to a cloud based setup. Their system is excellent, with top notch hardware, software, and support personnel. The volume of data, and the needed response time are minimal, so everything is very responsive, with caching on a local server. It is terrific, as long as the connection to the cloud is up. You see, our Internet provider goes down at times, and there is no authorized alternative, so there can be no backup path. When the connection goes down, all work stops. At least, with the old system, work could proceed, and the results could be caught up when the connection came back. I’m told we are the only field office in the world with this much of a problem, and the solution is to have our provider improve his service. That is happening, but slowly. Meanwhile, I have to deal with frustrated users.
Your comment about RDP security is well taken, and I am a fan of both Android and Chrome OS. At least my Android-Windows implementation (if possible) will be entirely behind my firewall, only on my LAN. I know a few Linux gurus, and that word reminded about Jerry Pournelle’s comment about Linux being a guru-friendly OS, but I digress. Linux may be really good for some applications, and its security model may be excellent, but Windows can be pretty secure, too. Most of the breaches I have read about (full disclosure: I don’t have time to read more than a tiny sample) were caused by lax practices, not anything inherent to any OS. Windows is a big target, and seems to be OK if properly cared for. I have challenged some of my Linux security penetration tester friends to get into my LAN, which used to have two Win machines on one segment at the time. They always said they were too busy to bother. Maybe it isn’t as trivial as they claim. Please, I am not claiming to be a genius, just careful and practical.
But I ramble on… I am grateful for all the good advice I get here, especially in this case, Jenny’s. Thanks.
RE: I’ve never understood the prepper fascination with New Zealand.
Having lived in NZ for several years I can help explain. NZ is extremely rural with 50% of the population living in just two cities and the rest of the country mostly in sheep, cattle, or farming. On the North Island, the climate is VERY nice with temps rarely getting above 90f and rarely below freezing. The years I lived there the worst winter had 3 days with frost in the morning. Most NZ homes have no air con, (not needed) and wood heat. The soil is very rich and will grow most crops easily. There is abundant wildlife and game hunting is a popular sport. I often saw wild turkeys when driving in the country. The Maori have a strong tradition of living off the land & sea. The average NZ person is slightly more conservative than their Aussie neighbors but vote liberal in national elections. NZ has no military to speak of. They bought a few dozen F16s back in the 80s but those never got out of the hangar and most were sold for parts. Their naval vessels are designed around rescue not defense. They depend on Aussies for any active defense and rely on their remoteness and insignificance for protection. They have a British style parliamentary democracy with many splinter parties. With all petrol being imported and expensive, most of NZ electrical power is supplied by Hydro projects providing a reliable and relatively inexpensive supply. NZ does not hold any strategic resources and is far removed from dangerous and waring countries. All in all New Zealand is a great location.
And it is shockingly beautiful.
n
All in all New Zealand is a great location.
They still seem highly dependent on more industrialized societies for a civilized lifestyle long term. How many people would honestly want to live like the Maori?
I doubt the Silicon Valley and Hollywood types with bug out pads in NZ intend to be the ones doing the hunting and gathering.
They still seem highly dependent on more industrialized societies for a civilized lifestyle long term
Like most countries, if the world crashes, they will suffer too. NZ imports ALL it’s oil and most of it’s metal and manufactured goods (washing machines, TVs, tractors, etc.) They don’t have much of an industrial base. They do have huge meat and dairy exports. But in today’s interconnected world no island is an island. I can’t think of a single country that would survive a global crash unscathed.
On the plus side, NZ can easily feed and provide electric power for it’s people in a crash and is too resource poor and remote to be a tempting target.
On the plus side, NZ can easily feed and provide electric power for it’s people in a crash and is too resource poor and remote to be a tempting target.
Electric power … until one of the big distribution transformers go down or enough of the little ones fry that the system has to decide who has priority as the grid shrinks.
MrAtoz, the gauntlet is thrown down.
While NZ generates over 80% of it’s power with Hydro it DOES have checkered history wit distribution problems. Back in the late 90’s, shortly before we moved there, the largest city, Auckland, was without power for FIVE weeks.
Read here for the details of how one failure cascaded into an entire outage.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_Auckland_power_crisis
I call bovine excrement.
I have challenged some of my Linux security penetration tester friends to get into my LAN, which used to have two Win machines on one segment at the time. They always said they were too busy to bother. Maybe it isn’t as trivial as they claim.
First they get through your ISP’s router and that round of NAT. Then through your router and more NAT.
Perhaps it’s foolish to depend on a $50 router and NAT. But, so far, so good.
I’m not seeing much reason for IPv6. My Kindle needs a worldwide unique address? For what? It can get an address from my router at 192.168.0.25 which is behind whatever address my ISP gives me. … and I’m pretty sure they have me behind their router.
It’s routers all the way down. 🙂
I’m not seeing much reason for IPv6. My Kindle needs a worldwide unique address? For what? It can get an address from my router at 192.168.0.25 which is behind whatever address my ISP gives me. … and I’m pretty sure they have me behind their router.
I have IPv6 turned off on our WAN conglomerater box, a Peplink 30. From what I hear, it does not matter anyway since the box does not have the horsepower to run both IPv4 and IPv6. So that puts our internal network behind two NATs, one at the AT&T DSL routers and one at the Peplink 30.
I would really like to see NAT implemented in IPv6. I do not buy the argument that it is impossible.
A story about a woman stuck in the high country and snow for a week, but survived:
https://www.ksl.com/article/46518714/police-utah-woman-reported-missing-in-nevada-found-safe-in-box-elder-county
How’s the emergency bag in your car?
Good for her!
How’s the emergency bag in your car?
I just carry a case of water, tools, a backpack, and a blanket. If I remember before going out on a trip, I throw a case of MREs in there also. I don’t like keeping the MREs in the vehicle since it gets so hot here in Texas. I would like to keep some other permanent food in the vehicles though. Plus I keep a couple of gubs in my vehicle.
ADD: I would also like to keep a small bicycle in my truck but haven’t really looked for a cheap bike that would break down easily to a small form factor.
We rarely drive out of populated areas. Since this is California, there would be plenty of snowflakes to eat. However, although city snowflakes are plentiful and juicy, country ones are scarce and tough.
“White House Warns of EMP Attacks On U.S.”
https://freebeacon.com/national-security/white-house-warns-of-emp-attacks-on-u-s/
“Trump admin officials working to counter EMP attacks on U.S. electrical grid, critical services”
Ol’ rocket man would love to do us. We embarrassed his grandfather, his father, and now him.
Hat tip to:
https://drudgereport.com/
Put down another 40 bags of mulch. It may have been cheaper to have it delivered in bulk but that is really messy. It is also more difficult to move around. You also don’t know if the stuff has been sterilized to kill seeds. I had a bad experience with some mulch that contained a lot of weeds.
ARRGGGHH !!! I have been debugging Excel VBA and C++ OLE code all day in Excel 2016. I can get my app to run using the PowerShell command line but it won’t let me touch the VBA macro I wrote using my C++ code. I am beginning to think that MS made a special case for allowing external macro contact with PowerShell. Surely not.
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/19536241/calling-excel-macros-from-powershell-with-arguments
Back from my CPA class. Vehicular Crimes and Shooting.
Only 10 rounds, from 21 ft, with a glock 17, and all my rounds were slightly left. I blame the sights…..
Looking at the death map for crashes, there is a cluster about a mile from my house. I can’t think of a reason why on that toll road either.
Back to appliance repairs, because I needed that added to my list today….
n
Xootr
Pity. They’ve discontinued the folding bike.
But there is there is <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Montague-Paratrooper-Speed-Folding-Mountain/dp/B00K3FQJW0/ref=sr_1_9?keywords=Montague+Folding+Bike&qid=1553658901&s=gateway&sr=8-9%5C%22%3Ethe&tag=ttgnet-20 Montague
“Biden rips ‘white man’s culture,’ regrets Anita Hill hearing”
https://apnews.com/73e70d011191490d839683b1fc89363f
I thought Biden did a great job showing how much a fake that Anita Hill was.
But there is there is <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Montague-Paratrooper-Speed-Folding-Mountain/dp/B00K3FQJW0/ref=sr_1_9?keywords=Montague+Folding+Bike&qid=1553658901&s=gateway&sr=8-9%5C%22%3Ethe&tag=ttgnet-20 Montague
That is a $1,000 bike. I am thinking $150. Something like this but a bit more sturdy (need to be able to support 250 lbs).
https://www.amazon.com/Murtisol-Mountain-Suspension-Adjustable-Derailleur/dp/B07GSYQ15Y/?tag=ttgnet-20
Ok, dish washer back up, I think. Cleaned clogged lines, removed chunk of glass from the impeller. Took longer than needed because I dropped a limit switch and all the internals popped out. Had to find them and figure out how to put them back.
I’m going to bed, and you should too.
n
Back to appliance repairs, because I needed that added to my list today….
We’ve got a 5 ? 6? year old LG steam washing machine. I’ve been having problems with the cold and hot inlet filters giving me the dreaded IE (“inlet error”) message. So, I pulled them Sunday night. Yup, no inlet filters. We’ll see how that goes down the road.
@paul: It’s not so much that your internal devices need public addresses. It’s more that NAT was a hack, and we’ve just gotten used to it. An IPv6 firewall will still deny connections to local devices. The fact that their addresses are passed on unchanged is functionally irrelevant. It just makes us uncomfortable, because we’re used to thinking that NAT provides security.
I mean, suppose that some device inside your network has a port open to the world. In IPv6-land, packets arrive at the router and are passed on to the device. In IPv4-land, it “looks” like an open port on the router, but the packets are passed on to the internal device just the same. No functional difference.
IPv6 is desperately needed for the address space. Here, we are officially “out” of new IPv4 addresses. If I want a static address, I have to pay quite the fee to get one. There’s no reason for this scarcity – it’s just numbers.
The people who designed IPv6 should be flogged for one stupid mistake: they failed to build in any sort of backwards compatibility. That’s the reason why it’s been “coming soon” for more than 20 years now. If they had done that one, little thing, we’d have had IPv6 in place before Y2K. Instead, we’ve spent 25 years tugging on the bandage, instead of getting the transition over with.
– – – – –
Anita Hill? IIRC she complained that whats-his-name handed her a can of coke with a pubic hair on it. Right, black guy, kinked hair on his head, so the kinked hair on the can was obviously…pubic hair? She had as much credibility as the women in the latest Supreme Court idiocy, in fact, I think she started the trend.
– – – – –
Gotta go grade exams, fun, fun…
I may be mis-remembering, but I thought it was the Bork nomination (and following circus with the Dems) that started the current trend of idiocy in SC nominations.
Okay – I checked Wikipedia. Bork was ’87, and Thomas was ’91.
That’s how I see it – Bork was the start of the stupidity. Thomas was the big show.
That’s how I see it – Bork was the start of the stupidity. Thomas was the big show.
Didn’t the Bork stupidity result in David Souter?
Thomas was up to fill the traditional “black” seat on the court, but he wasn’t liberal. The Dems changed the tradition about nominees under Bush I, but the Republicans still keep trying to play by the rules.
We’ll see what happens with Ginsberg’s successor to the “political payola” seat.