66F and saturated. Sunny though. Nice day so far.
As I look at my gutted dishwasher, I’m contemplating an idea that may be more important than I first thought. The idea is that we’ve been trading resilience for convenience.
As far as I can determine, a power surge/overvoltage/etc damaged the control board in my dishwasher during the storm of a few days ago. A dishwashing robot is an incredible convenience. Load it up, press start, and an hour later you have clean and sanitary dishes. The price for that is a microchip that can be damaged easily and will stop the whole machine from working. A few cents for the part, but without it, nothing. The design engineer went with a micro because he could put logic in software, rather than discrete hardware. They potted the board because it reduces failures but it also reduces resiliency in that it can’t easily be fixed.
I see the same sorts of decisions everywhere in the modern world. New heat pump water heaters have a computer on them. Old ones used a simple thermocouple which was cheap and robust, easy to stock a spare, and easy to replace. Furnaces have gone the same way.
Cars have a huge number of convenience features that can all break. I wonder if the ‘lane assist’ will let you operate the vehicle if the system is broken (not off, but actually broken.)
Society is falling into the same trap. No cash because you can always use cards fails completely when the comm links are down. Then you get no food. Just in time inventory is also convenient for the stores, but absolutely not resilient.
We’ve been cutting “slack” and “excess capacity” out of systems for 40 years and there is little left to cut. We are always running on the very edge of every use case, one small failure away from a big one.
Think about adding resilience BACK into the systems and devices you use daily. That is sort of the essence of prepping anyway…
n
Bi doo, bi dee, bi doe, bi dye.
That’s what I used as a placeholder when I sang to our eldest. The next line involves a play on her name that embarrasses her now, so I don’t share it. It’s her name, so I respect her wishes.
In the 55º range today, with thunder-boomers later. Spring is good. Cleaning out the basement this week, and I’m finding all kinds of things I should have thrown out long ago. It’s going now, while I still have the will to get rid of it.
In the 60s now headed to the 80s later.
Spring was way too short here, it always is, and the summer misery is set to begin.
Dealing with the wifes dialysis is so very limiting. We had hoped it would become routine but it’s still a complication. We have to plan every day around her medical requirements. We no longer can run down to visit our son in Oklahoma without at least 3 weeks pre-planning and arranging for space at a dialysis center near by. Except now they tell us that they made an error and the center we wanted to use in his town was fully booked so we have to spend a whole day out of our 3 days there, driving to the next available clinic for treatment. I am frustrated, the wife is incredibly depressed. She had envisioned our retirement as a time to travel and enjoy. We had to cancel our summer cruise because the ship didn’t have dialysis facilities and those that do aren’t covered under insurance or Medicare so the costs are prohibitive. Getting old sucks.
@harold, that is really unfortunate.
I’m assuming you will continue trying to address the root causes and minimize the effects with diet, or is it too late now that there is failure? I’m not clear on the steps of the process and how you end up there.
I can share that an old family friend always said she’d rather die than undergo dialysis, but now that she has started, she feels better than she has in years. She spends months away from home in the winter, but at a fixed location.
Lots of people deal with it and I’m sure you guys will adjust. A change like this is bound to be traumatic and it will take you time to work thru it.
Focus on the life you guys have ahead of you still….
n
Hi – regular lurker 🙂
Concerning the dishwasher pcb: I’ve had success with cutting down the edges of the plastic “tray” that holds the pcb. The top of the pcb (the side that is inside the plastic tray) is usually not potted, so by removing the edges of the tray the pcb can be levered out. For replacing the micro and/or triacs in the past, i cut them on top of the pcb and solder the new parts onto the old cut legs (no bother with the potting on the solder side).
HTH
Nick
Thanks for the positive thoughts. I have read of people who do travel with it but our first experience has been much less than positive.
Wife’s diabetes caused kidney issues over the years then earlier this year a bout of DKA pretty much ended kidney function. She’s been very strict on her diet for diabetes and now kidney loss and some days she simply cries because there is so little she is allowed to eat any longer. I am hoping that we can get a transplant slot but it’s two months before we can even get on the list. Sorry, feeling pretty down today.
No need to apologize, it’s a kick in the gut I’m sure….
On the plus, you get many more years together, that you wouldn’t have gotten just a couple of decades ago. Focus on that, and the minuses should get smaller.
You may not be able to do the things you had planned and in the way you hoped, but there are many other things you can do. The key will be finding them and adjusting to that reality. It won’t happen overnight, that’s for certain.
n
@willem,
thanks for the idea! I think I’ll try to replace the one smoked resister just for fun, even though I don’t expect that to solve the issue. I like fixing stuff when I can.
n
Resilience. I’ve thought about that more than once: it’s really just part of an advanced civilization. We have built layers upon layers of skills and products. You can’t repair your dishwasher without a replacement PCB. But that PCB has to be put together in a factory somewhere. Which buys in parts from other factories. Which buy their materials from yet other places.
What goes into stocking your local store? The logistics alone are amazing, never mind the products. This is why socialism cannot work: the sheer planning required for state control is beyond impossible. Only a self-organizing system like capitalism has a chance. Which isn’t to deny the need for some regulation, to prevent crony-capitalism, misuse of monopolies, etc. – but capitalism is at the root of much of modern civilization. And – on the large scale – provides the resilience needed to adapt to change.
It’s the inter-dependency that Aesop thinks will make ebola on US soil a society killer…
https://raconteurreport.blogspot.com/2019/05/i-dun-tole-ya.html
I can’t see where he’s wrong, it’s pretty much what the CDC says to prepare for in their Business Continuity and Pandemic Flu sections. How do you keep civilization running if half or more of your workforce stays home? If the schools close, someone has to watch the kids, never mind that people won’t want to go in to work anyway.
See my previous posts for how your local healthcare system is planning for an outbreak with expanded morgue space, housing for dependents, isolation to preserve senior staff, collapse of pre-hospital care (EMS), and martial law.
https://www.ttgnet.com/journal/2018/02/16/fri-feb-16-2018-pandemic-flu-preparedness/
FWIW, my initial reaction to Aesop was that africa survives their outbreaks why couldn’t we? But then I realized that the knock on effects kick in and we collapse to an africa level… which means some people survive but our society/civilization/culture doesn’t.
n
FWIW, 3x 5 pound bags of flour, 1x 5 pound bag of sugar, one liter of peanut oil, one pound of salt, 12 packets of yeast, all fit in a 5 gallon bucket, in their original packaging.
That’s a lot of tortilla/pita/flatbreads….
n
Resilience. I’ve thought about that more than once: it’s really just part of an advanced civilization. We have built layers upon layers of skills and products. You can’t repair your dishwasher without a replacement PCB. But that PCB has to be put together in a factory somewhere. Which buys in parts from other factories. Which buy their materials from yet other places.
Even in high end products, the electronics are mostly cr*p anymore. Even if the circuit boards are populated in the US, Mexico, or EU, the bare boards and bulk components are sourced from SE Asia.
Making 5-7 layer circuit boards is not the most environmentally friendly process, but soccer moms must have that liftgate sensor that opens the door with a swipe of their foot. Two layer through-hole circuit boards just don’t cut it anymore for embedded systems in even the most basic consumer products.
When I worked for Jabil 27 years ago, half the company’s business and the founding product was assembling Delco car radios. These days, if they make it here in the US, Jabil is focused on high end medical or DoD projects. GM car electronics went … God only knows where.
The pdf at this link has some good links in it regarding ebola, epidemic, measles, and others.
https://content.govdelivery.com/attachments/USDHSCIKR/2019/05/15/file_attachments/1211379/Infectious%20Disease%20Update%20-%20May%202019.pdf
n
The pdf at this link has some good links in it regarding ebola, epidemic, measles, and others.
Clark County, WA was omitted from the measles risk map. Not much has changed there, but I’m sure The Vancouver Clinic and Kaiser pulled strings at CDC since they already can’t hire enough doctors.
Working 75 hour weeks, management isn’t really particular about where I work so I’m home a lot more as of late. The recruiting calls from the Portland Metro for my wife have picked up since the WA Measles Pandemic. I guess they figure if they fooled her once, …
Recruiters who have called the house before and talked to me simply hang up when they don’t get voice mail. They really don’t like it when I describe our last experience in the Northwest as “financial anal rape”.
Relevant to our past discussions about desktop OSs.
https://linux.slashdot.org/story/19/05/15/1523252/why-linux-on-desktop-failed-a-discussion-with-mark-shuttleworth
Linux on the desktop could be great. If they let it.
From yesterday:
I did get motivated to run MOCA to the family room so there is one plus about the experiments. And, before I get asked, yes, there is plenty of bandwidth on the MOCA for the Roku — I checked using iperf. The Roku is old, however.
What is MOCA ?
From yesterday:
I may have to replace our Jennair dishwasher soon (which is really a relabeled Maytag). It is 16 years old and the baskets are rusting.
LG studio series, direct drive inverter….
Wasn’t a cheap one, I’m not sure I can blame them for the issues I’ve had.
We had a Bosch in Florida as our last (of three) dishwashers. It ran without a problem.
Wow, that is a lot of problems for an LG dishwasher though.
moca is directv’s ethernet over coax technology. They put it out when they needed to get ethernet to their set top boxes, but most people only had the coax in place.
The adapters are cheap on ebay, and solve a problem of getting a hard line someplace difficult, if you already have the coax going there.
I suppose you could run coax on purpose too if you wanted to, but if you’re pulling cable, might as well put cat and coax.
n
(I’d pull multiple cats on new install, and only pull coax as needed. used to be you’d pull coax everywhere you might want a tv. then people started pulling a phone to each tv, now enet….)
Freefall: the dangers of space
http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff3300/fc03278.htm
Heh, nobody warned Sam about …
_Caine’s Mutiny (Caine Riordan)_ by Charles E. Gannon
https://www.amazon.com/Caines-Mutiny-Riordan-Charles-Gannon/dp/148148317X/?tag=ttgnet-20
Book number four of a five book space opera series about the formation of the Consolidated Terran Republic. I read the 1,072 page well printed and bound (and heavy !) MMPB published by Baen. I have ordered the fifth book in the series that is to be released on July 2, 2019:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1481484095/?tag=ttgnet-20
Ah, space opera, my first love in books ! Somebody stole a bunch of Terran soldiers off Earth back in the 1900s and deposited them on a Hkh’Rkh colony planet. Bad things happen and Caine is send to investigate the mess in order to stave off another interstellar war. But, these things are never simple to fix and then Pournelle’s Iron Law of Bureaucracy rears its ugly head.
https://www.jerrypournelle.com/reports/jerryp/iron.html
and
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Pournelle#Pournelle's_iron_law_of_bureaucracy
My rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars (40 reviews)
xkcd: XKeyboarCD
https://www.xkcd.com/2150/
I have been wondering when someone was going to put emoji keys on a keyboard.
Explained at:
https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2150:_XKeyboarCD
I see the same sorts of decisions everywhere in the modern world. New heat pump water heaters have a computer on them. Old ones used a simple thermocouple which was cheap and robust, easy to stock a spare, and easy to replace. Furnaces have gone the same way.
Both of my previous water heaters had computers in them powered by the electricity generated by the thermocouple. Both died within four years. I now have the old analog water heaters. I strongly advise against the digital water heaters.
I had supper with my cousin last night who owns the Tesla model 3 that he got last October. He has 11,000 miles on it and loves it. Since he has the dual motors (o to 60 mph in 3 seconds) and the 310 mile battery, he has no range anxiety. He is really looking forward to the total automatic driving feature and figures that Tesla will be able to charge $1,000/year for that feature to be activated. When, they get it …
He had a trim piece problem that he just noticed on the driver door. He turned in a fix request and they sent a mobile repairman out to fix it. Amazing.
He had a trim piece problem that he just noticed on the driver door. He turned in a fix request and they sent a mobile repairman out to fix it. Amazing.
Tesla just got a round of carbon credit extortion cash from Fiat-Chrysler. Life is good.
Tesla just got a round of carbon credit extortion cash from Fiat-Chrysler. Life is good.
“Tesla Completes $2.35 Billion Stock and Bond Sale”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/tesla-seeks-raise-as-much-as-2-7-billion-up-from-2-3-billion-11556886130
They are burning through the cash so they got a LOT of cash. $2 billion from Fiat and $2 billion from the markets.
Ford’s plugin hybrid truck is supposed to be released this summer. Tesla needs to get their truck out very soon.
https://www.trucks.com/2019/02/05/spy-shots-ford-electric-f-150-pickup/
Linux on the desktop could be great. If they let it.
I run a Linux-only laptop with four separate distributions, and each has its problems preventing full-time use as the machine’s only OS.
Linux on the desktop for the average user is a long way off. I think the group that comes closest to pulling it off is System76 with their Pop! OS, the primary OS on my 2007 MacBook Pro right now. It still has issues, however.
“Some Amazon Sellers Are Paying $10,000 A Month To Trick Their Way To The Top”
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/leticiamiranda/amazon-marketplace-sellers-black-hat-scams-search-rankings
Yup.
Hat tip to: “Amazon Is Losing the War on Fraudulent Sellers”
https://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram/archives/2019/0515.html
Hat tip to: “Amazon Is Losing the War on Fraudulent Sellers”
The #1 thing I learned in grad school is that labor imported from the subcontinent has a different view of right/wrong than domestic workers. Amazon brought its problem on itself.
Again, I was one of only two people in the program (out of 40-50) to have the title “Teaching Assistant” because I could produce a certified transcript from my undergraduate institution. And I don’t want to hear that they may have experienced complications due to the schools being overseas — the other TA was from Vietnam and didn’t have any problem with her transcripts.
Ford’s plugin hybrid truck is supposed to be released this summer. Tesla needs to get their truck out very soon.
They’re still going to try a truck? Insanity, especially if they’re going after the Ram/F-150 class.
Just ask GM Arlington where their output goes these days. Tesla can’t afford to dump into rental car fleets.
Ford’s plugin hybrid truck is supposed to be released this summer. Tesla needs to get their truck out very soon.
They’re still going to try a truck? Insanity, especially if they’re going after the Ram/F-150 class.
There are no other growth vehicle markets besides trucks and SUVs. The Tesla Model X does not cover the SUV market very well and their truck needs to be released yesterday. Although, any pure electric truck is going to be a disaster for towing where one’s mileage drops by 1/3 to 1/2.
I do know that Tesla is running several electric 18 wheelers from the battery plant in Nevada to the car plant in California each day. They are getting an incredible amount of experience doing that.
https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-semi-trailer-battery-packs-gigafactory-fremont/
FWIW, 3x 5 pound bags of flour, 1x 5 pound bag of sugar, one liter of peanut oil, one pound of salt, 12 packets of yeast, all fit in a 5 gallon bucket, in their original packaging.
That’s a lot of tortilla/pita/flatbreads….
Plus a Coleman stove to cook those flatbreads:
https://www.amazon.com/Coleman-2000020943NP-Classic-Propane-Stove/dp/B00005OU9D/?tag=ttgnet-20
With a Coleman stove oven:
https://www.amazon.com/Coleman-2000016462-Camp-Oven-13-5/dp/B0009PURJA/?tag=ttgnet-20
And a propane 20 lb bottle hose:
https://www.amazon.com/Coleman-High-Pressure-Propane-Hose-Adapter/dp/B0009PUQAK/?tag=ttgnet-20
And several propane 20 lb bottles.
Anything better than this ?
FWIW, 3x 5 pound bags of flour, 1x 5 pound bag of sugar, one liter of peanut oil, one pound of salt, 12 packets of yeast, all fit in a 5 gallon bucket, in their original packaging.
Hey, which five gallon bucket and lid do I use to keep the rats out ?
Ha, I wish. My mileage drops from 20 mpg to 8 mpg pulling my travel trailer. Every mile consumes a pint of fuel when towing.
“Education Occurs. Reality Hits. Hilarity Ensues.”
https://raconteurreport.blogspot.com/2019/05/education-occurs-reality-hits-hilarity.html
“IANAL, but she isn’t just a thief.”
“Taking the sign constitutes an assault by bodily force.
When asked if she has ID, she first says no.
When asked again, she confesses that yes, she does have ID. That’s making a false statement to a police officer during an investigation.
And she could probably be charged with damaging the sign, which was in fact damage to private property.”
“But the look on her unprepossessing face when she realizes that laws are real, and she’s about to get her criminal ass hooked and booked, is priceless.”
I can just imagine what her phone call home to mom to explain that she has been arrested and needs to be bailed out will be like. And that the university is kicking her out of the women’s studies program.
Anything better than this ?
Coleman oven on the side burner of my gas grill? Not exactly portable plus I can bake in the grill.
I have the oven and the cute little bake set for it. I have the hose, also. I need a new Coleman stove… Pretty sure ya ain’t suppose to have flames around the left burner valve.
Need to get the bottles refilled. I think I’m down to 2 full plus the one on the grill. Five or six empties.
They accumulate…. new grill, new bottle. Working at the HEB and folks that are moving try to get a refund on their bottle, nope, HEB doesn’t do that. But hey, I’ll give you $20 for it.
And, when the propane refill place gives you heck about a bottle being out of date, do an exchange at the grocery store.
FWIW, 3x 5 pound bags of flour
Did you freeze the flour for a week? Though oxygen absorbers may be good enough.
Harold, while regular Medicare doesn’t cover foreign medical care (except right along the border in very limited cases) some levels of Medigap do provide some protection. As always, the devil is in the details, so call the carrier before you venture forth.
Handy Medigap comparison chart:
https://www.medicare.gov/supplements-other-insurance/how-to-compare-medigap-policies
I can just imagine what her phone call home to mom to explain that she has been arrested and needs to be bailed out will be like. And that the university is kicking her out of the women’s studies program.
Nothing happened to the girl beyond the arrest and fingerprinting, and the campus cops probably released her on her own recognizance. If anything, the arresting officer was probably reprimanded once the parents got involved.
Watch the girl’s eyes and listen to her. She knows that, if nothing else, biology will protect her the more vulnerable she acts. Chances are, one of the higher ups will find her attractive or have a daughter her age. Obviously Donut Boy doesn’t fit in either category, but someone at the station will.
Out of the last nine years, I’ve spent five of those working on a college campus. Maybe, I’m really cynical.
@Paul, I don’t freeze it. Its so cheap I don’t worry I just throw it out.
NOTHING is rat proof :-/
You can t have too many propane bottles. Do you have a big pot and open burner like a Turkey frying rig? Bad times come, you will want to be able to boil 5 gallons of water for cleaning and bathing…. and in the mean time, Turkey fry or crawfish boil!
N
Pcb_duffer: Thanks again.
I need to find the time to sit down and email you back about the comprehensive email you sent. After reading it I took a cold call from a Medicare Advisor who warned me that the part C supplements were worthless. He clearly had a bill of goods to sell. I have blocked his number.
NOTHING is rat proof :-/
Not even metal buckets ?
Yeah, I’ve got a couple of those Augason pails. They are very tough but I will bet that the rats are tougher. I keep them upstairs in the bug out place.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Augason-Farms-White-Granulated-Sugar-28-Pound-Pail/22001475
Wow, that pail was half price of that about 6 or 7 years ago.
You can t have too many propane bottles. Do you have a big pot and open burner like a Turkey frying rig? Bad times come, you will want to be able to boil 5 gallons of water for cleaning and bathing…. and in the mean time, Turkey fry or crawfish boil!
Yup on the propane bottles. I just do not have a good place that I am comfortable storing many of them (I’ve got 3 of the 20 lb and a dozen of the 1 lb). And no I do not have the 5 gal pot and burner ring. Maybe I do need that.
Yeah, I’ve got a couple of those Augason pails. They are very tough but I will bet that the rats are tougher.
I’ve written before that I saw holes that citrus grove rats chewed into cinderblock to get to our stock returns desk back when I worked at Publix in FL in the 80s. The store construction dated back to the mid 70s, and, even though Publix moved down the street, the building still stands, now as a SteinMart.
The citrus groves and rats were gone by the late 80s.
I have my 20# bottles about 60 feet from the house. In mostly shade. The little bottles, maybe a dozen out in the boat shed. But if the Coleman is screwed, the little bottles are useless.
I do have a turkey fryer rig. Have not fried a turkey and don’t care to. I did connect a tank, and yeah, it works.
Actually, the next time I do any pressure canning, it’s going to be on the turkey fryer burner rig. Not really interesting in replacing the element and the socket on my electric stove again.
I think they’d have no problem cutting thru a steel 5 gallon bucket if they were motivated….
n
@Paul, I don’t freeze it. Its so cheap I don’t worry I just throw it out.
Yeah, flour /is/ cheap. But the weevils will ruin everything else in the bucket. Ok, maybe just the yeast. And then…..
@paul
turkey fryer
I think we used ours to deep fry a turkey. Once. I have used our turkey fryer several times to render lard for soap, though. And to boil the meaty bits off a (small) caribou head. That caused a small olfactory sensation for the neighborhood dogs
Thought you guys would get a kick out of this news item.
Roscoe is out of a litter of Cardigan Welsh Corgis I whelped in8/2015. Scout is his older half brother. Roscoe goes everywhere with his owner. Daily hikes. Long boat camping trips. Deer hunting. He usually notifies his owner that a bear is nearby. Wind was wrong direction this time. And his barky mouth nearly got the better of him.
I’m weirdly proud at this tough little dog. He weighs in at about 35 pounds and has the heart of a lion. He is fiercely dedicated to his owner.
Here is the article:
05/15/2019
Sitka Sentinal
Brown Bear Takes a Swat At Dog on Cross Trail
By Shannon Haugland
Sentinal Staff Writer
A dog survived a close encounter with a bear near the Sitka Cross Trail Monday, escaping serious injury.
Barth Hamberg, a longtime Sitka resident, said he had gone out with two Cardigan Welsh Corgis, Roscoe and Scout, for a lunchtime walk just off the Cross Trail behind the Alaska Public Safety Academy.
“Roscoe was ranging out in front of me, the wind was blowing from behind us so he couldn’t smell anything (ahead),” Hamberg said. “I saw a brown thing moving through the brush, about 75 feet away – I thought it was a deer.”
Roscoe, now out of sight, barked, Hamberg saw the brown shape turn and run quickly into the woods in the direction of where Hamberg believed Roscoe was – and the barking stopped.
Hamberg feared the bear had gotten Roscoe.
“I called and I called but I didn’t see where the bear had gone, and didn’t see the dog,” Hamberg said. “After one minute or two, I heard him barking from the direction from where we came – 100 yards or more away.”
Hamberg and Scout found Roscoe, apparently none the worse for wear. The three went home, and Hamberg went back to work at his U.S. Forest Service office.
He received a call later from his wife, who noticed blood on the pad where Roscoe had been sleeping. Hamberg took the dog to the vet to be checked out.
“Sure enough, there was a hole where the bear probably swatted him in the butt,” Hamberg said. It appeared that a claw had pierced the dog’s skin, requiring two stitches.
It was the second time in a year Hamberg has encountered a bear while out with a dog, but he said the experiences haven’t made him less willing to take his pets out for exercise in the woods.
“Sometimes things just happen – bears are unpredictable and they don’t like being barked at,” he said.
Caption: Roscoe, a corgi, eats from his dish. The dog’s hind quarters were wounded in a bear encounter Monday. (Photo provided)
Body not afraid to cash the checks his mouth is writing!
n
Airwaves are a bit noisy tonight but still the best listening I’ve had in a month. 80m and 40m, ham and SW coming in readable.
Greece and Romania both listenable.
Heard Mexico City for the first time. Cuba, florida, MS, and LA as well as various TX stations.
I’m driving to Austin (actually Round Rock) in the morning, so I’m off to an early bed.
n
Heard Mexico City for the first time. Cuba, florida, MS, and LA as well as various TX stations.
We used to hear Radio Moscow in Tampa on 600 AM out of Havana on clear nights in the 80s, as strong as 970, the big commercial AM station in town.
@lynn
What is MOCA ?
Not just DirectTV,
http://www.mocalliance.org/technology/Final_Best-Practices-for-Installation-of-MoCA_170516rev01.pdf
Home-run your RG-6 cables, pull two where you’d pull one, etc. and you have another network when you run out of CAT6 and good WiFi coverage.
.mg
Whats up are using WordPress for your site platform?
I’m new to the blog world but I’m trying to get started and create my own. Do you
require any coding expertise to make your own blog? Any help would be greatly
appreciated!
If not spam, then, Just Do It….
wordpress and blogger are both free and easy to set up. jump in and start writing.
Do it with some discipline, build up some content so when people do find your blog there will be plenty to keep them around and coming back.
good luck
n