Cool and wet.
Yesterday got sunny and all the way to 47F here on the shores of Lake Michigan. Well, near them anyway.
Did get a couple of nice locally made tchotcki for the second child to give as presents. Might have to take the first child out today to get her last minute shopping done. It was a nice couple of hours with my little one, culminating in coffee and a smoothie for her. This town is soaking in small town charm.
Last day to get any Christmas stuff in order, second day of Hanukkah, and day after Festivus.
I’d be powering up the AA guns and the AS battery later tonight, if I didn’t have two little ones. I’ll have to settle for putting out the less tasty cocoa and some slightly stale cookies for the fat man. Some blog traditions I just can’t keep up đ
It’s clear from looking at the history of Christmas in the US that we have been making it up as we go. Make some new traditions of your own if you want to, and honor some from the past.
Take the opportunity to mark the day in whatever way matters to you. If this is a very tough time of the year for you, please find someone to share your burden- even if it’s just a bunch of grumpy old men online.
All of you reading this have my very best wishes,
nick
Up and about. Most of the females and one child have gone out for a final, pre-Christmas forage. I think it’s mostly for fresh ingredients for eats the next couple of days. I’d like to think all the presents are bought…
Currently 48F with solid overcast. Fog was heavy last night and interfered with lots of folks’ travel plans. I guess getting here early was the smart thing to do.
I can’t help wishing for a white Christmas. They are magical.
The world continues to turn, even if I’m watching it at dial up speeds….
n
Last night’s early Christmas Eve dinner, a pork roast from Sams Club, tasted freezer burned. Gotta wonder if that has anything to do with the Pig Ebola in China.
We didn’t put the roast in the freezer after buying it Sunday. Sams obviously did that at some point in their supply chain.
My wife is following the end-of-year tradition of getting stressed out over presents and the kids coming home and guests and parties, and relieving the stress by screaming at me. Oh, that’s right, that’s why I normally don’t take vacation at the end of the year.
I wouldn’t have this year, but my employer was recently acquired by a large company, with HR and corporate policies and all that garbage. They wouldn’t allow me to use the last of my 2019 time off in the first week of January, when it would be useful while The Child is off school and my wife will be working. In related news, I’m using the time off to look for a new job. I took a job at low pay with a small company because I wanted to work for a small company. Now that that’s gone, there’s no point in settling for the low pay.
Yes, they are. Hope you get your wish.
When I was growing up on the other side of MI, most snow was mixed with a little rain, so gray and slushy, with sky color to match. The occasional white stuff came in several inch falls that was magical, but made driving puckery. Very few plows back then; most popular were 30-40 ton salt trucks. They were welcomed, especially by the auto industry. Detroit sits atop one of the world’s largest salt domes, which has been mined for a long time.
Growing up in Rhinelander, WI, usually meant âmultiple feetâ of snow each Winter. I now prefer to have a wonderful dirt desert. If I want snow, Iâll drive up the mountains or go to Lake Tahoe (the NV side where the casinos are located).
The front page of Drudge claims â$34.4 billion, biggest shopping day in historyâ. Thank you President tRump. The ProgLibTurds can suck it!
The front page of Drudge claims â$34.4 billion, biggest shopping day in historyâ. Thank you President tRump. The ProgLibTurds can suck it!
I don’t think it is a coincidence that the news this week also had the story about China moving up to be the #2 economy on the planet.
Though, for every advance they make, there’s always a “Pig Ebola”-type fiasco behind the scenes. It will be a while before they move to take the top slot.
The Daily Mail must love Christmas. It makes their continuing coverage of the US freak show effortless for a couple of days.
Is that a Murdoch paper?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7823773/Brawls-break-malls-minute-shoppers-try-score-deal-Super-Saturday.html
I see a lot of POC in those mall brawls.
And just what are you saying, MrAtoz???? Remember, pattern recognition is a crime!
From yesterday:
I was told by a customer today that they successfully used our software to create an online digital twin this year of an LNG plant. The LNG plant was also designed using our software and brought online this year with minimal problems. I am seeing the phrase âdigital twinâ everywhere nowadays as the latest engineering buzzword.
We’ve been replaying raw sensor transaction data through our systems as part of testing, in effect creating a “digital twin” of the plaza, but it doesn’t really replace real life hardware. And if our system fails, nothing explodes … other than the amortization tables the state/city government used to justify building the roads.
@greg,
The Daily Mail (known here in UK as the “Daily Fail” because of its breathlessy “the-sky is-falling” style of journalism) is owned by DMGT, the Daily Mail and General Trust, which is not Murdoch-owned. He has News International.
Geoff
A Diplomad Christmas :
Digital twin, and another version of that, that I can’t remember without the trade mag in front of me. Everyone forgets, the map is not the territory, the model is not the reality.
====
Lot of diversity in those fight Club videos. Lot of hand wringing about children being nearby, as if that matters to the goblins. I bet that 9 out of 10 would call you a stupid hitch for having your kids next to their fight.
====
My big worry about pig Ebola is them nuking the world in an” If I can’t have it you can’t either” fit. They’ve already had criminal gangs deliberately infect farms.
Shit could get real, real quick.
N
BC: the first porch pirate
https://www.gocomics.com/bc/2019/12/24
Heh. And the tinsel makes good roughage.
My big worry about pig Ebola is them nuking the world in anâ If I canât have it you canât eitherâ fit. Theyâve already had criminal gangs deliberately infect farms.
Shit could get real, real quick.
They own the farms. Smithfield at least. Infecting the farms isn’t in their best interest. As I’ve theorized before, decriminalizing occupation of the country (that’s effectively what the Dems want) will probably result in millions of Number One Sons moving here.
My guess is that our freezer burned roast was the result of current US production being diverted overseas to deal with the crisis until the lid gets clamped down on Hong Kong. Sam’s refunded the roast without an argument, but I didn’t take it in there seeking the money as much as I wanted to let them know I got a bad piece of meat.
It will be a while before we buy something like that from Sam’s again. Be aware of this if your preps include preserving their “fresh” pork cuts.
You shut your lying mouth! And why are you commenting here? Shouldn’t you be bailing out your house as the oceans rise because of the ice caps melting? And don’t you tell me the ocean isn’t rising! Who are you going to believe, climate scientists or your lying eyes?
You may think you’re badass, but I’ll bet you’ve never used a baby as a weapon.
Ohhhh, yah. The dude’s speaking my language.
“Chinese hacker group caught bypassing 2FA”
https://www.zdnet.com/article/chinese-hacker-group-caught-bypassing-2fa/
“Chinese state-sponsored group APT20 has been busy hacking government entities and managed service providers.”
“Security researchers say they found evidence that a Chinese government-linked hacking group has been bypassing two-factor authentication (2FA) in a recent wave of attacks.”
Got jBoss ?
The only security out there is to air gap your critical stuff.
… which has been known for about 40 years, but hooking computers and cameras and sensors and controllers up to the internet and the phone system is just so conveeeeenient.
Measles in Austin?
Somebody eats out quite a bit.
http://austintexas.gov/Measles
For those of you not familiar with Austin and wonder where you’ve heard the name before, Mandola’s is what the crazy uncle who co-founded Carrabba’s is doing these days.
Got jBoss ?
Don’t laugh. My whole job at CGI was installing a JBoss-based collections system in secure environments at banks and large insurance companies. The key bridge program interfaced into mainframes using a Java package as the back end to the web interface., thus making the framework a big security hole if JBoss has been compromised.
The only people who hated their job more than me were the legacy AMS employees who created the system and were sold down the river by their management 15 years ago. When I turned in notice, my project manager vented for about an hour about CGI’s ineptitude in handling the product line.
And there are worse risks around than JBoss. I view the whole Node.JS/NPM ecosystem as suspect, and I’ve seen HowTo docs on the Internet about tying GNU Cobol into that mess.
The only security out there is to air gap your critical stuff.
⌠which has been known for about 40 years, but hooking computers and cameras and sensors and controllers up to the internet and the phone system is just so conveeeeenient.
I know. Man, do I know. I worry about our holes in the wall all the time.
The only people who hated their job more than me were the legacy AMS employees who created the system and were sold down the river by their management 15 years ago.
Everyone gets sold down the river by their management. The Boeing BOD fired their CEO yesterday and gave him a $39 million bonus out the door. And then hired another accountant to run the place. They should have hired an engineer pilot. At least a halfway decent engineer would not outsource the 737MAX safety programming to India at $6/hour.
I just watched the latest Michael Bay movie on Netflix with Ryan Reynolds instead of wrapping my Christmas presents. “6 Underground”. What a mess ! I cannot believe that I made it all the way through. The 25 minute car chase at the beginning was good though.
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/6_underground
They have released the “short list” for some of the Oscar categories for next year’s awards. One of my brother’s films got a nod for special effects. Fingers crossed that it makes it onto the list for production design and onto the final ballor. If so, he’ll be one of the nominees.
They have released the âshort listâ for some of the Oscar categories for next yearâs awards. One of my brotherâs films got a nod for special effects. Fingers crossed that it makes it onto the list for production design and onto the final ballor. If so, heâll be one of the nominees.
Name of movie if you feel comfortable releasing it ?
I just watched the latest Michael Bay movie on Netflix instead of wrapping my Christmas presents. â6 Undergroundâ. What a mess ! I cannot believe that I made it all the way through. The 25 minute car chase at the beginning was good though.
My family has been watching the Baby Yoda Show (“The Mandalorian”) over the past week. I already pulled the plug on Disney+, but, having paid for a month, they have enough time left to finish the series. Even if time runs out, The Mouse isn’t exactly working overtime to cut down on the torrents.
Disney+ has a disturbing amount missing from the service. For starters, “Enchanted” and “Sky High”, their two best in-house original live action flicks from the past 20 years IMHO should be there but aren’t. The “Sky High” icon is present on the landing page when the service starts, but attempting to watch results in a message that the film will be available in a year.
Merry Xmas to all!
digital twins, give me a break, it is the next environmental disaster waiting, surely everyone test on digital twin, later, Ms reality arises and caboom.
Try to convince a board to perform small scale test after the learn digital twin, people forget this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experimental_uncertainty_analysis
Disney has a disturbing amount missing from the service. For starters, âEnchantedâ and âSky Highâ, their two best in-house original live action flicks from the past 20 years IMHO should be there but arenât. The âSky Highâ icon is present on the landing page when the service starts, but attempting to watch results in a message that the film will be available in a year.
Disney has an incredible amount of contracts left to fulfill out there.
BTW, one of my friends rates the Star Wars movies in this order:
RO > 5 > 4 > 6 > 7 > 3 > 2 > 8 > HS > 1 > 9
(RO = Rouge One, HS = Holiday Special). I am fairly close to his order.
He did not put the Mandalorian on there because of its awesomeness.
While not a system with a high target value, the production broadcast system is on a completely isolated network with no internet. I am not worried about attacks but nefarious software gaining access. The church network wireless is totally separate from the guest wireless. Thus three networks all air gapped. Call me paranoid.
Yâall have a Merry Christmas, from Nashville where it was 69f today.
Baby Yoda rocks! Disney missed out on millions with no Cabbage Patch Yoda.
My family has been watching the Baby Yoda Show (âThe Mandalorianâ) over the past week. I already pulled the plug on Disney+, but, having paid for a month, they have enough time left to finish the series. Even if time runs out, The Mouse isnât exactly working overtime to cut down on the torrents.
My daughter has been watching “The Simpsons” from the beginning on Disney+. She really likes having the service. My wife has ordered two more Rokus since my LG tv won’t download a Disney client and the DVD streamer on the den does not have a Disney client either. We are going to drop DirecTV before the move to the new used house which has now been moved to Jan 15.
Baby Yoda rocks! Disney missed out on millions with no Cabbage Patch Yoda.
Maybe for Valentine’s Day ?
Nothing wrong with that order, though I wonât see episode 9 until tomorrow. I wanted to see Jumanji 2 and boycot Star Wars, but Iâve been overruled. At least Iâm just paying matinee price.
BTW, one of my friends rates the Star Wars movies in this order:
RO > 5 > 4 > 6 > 7 > 3 > 2 > 8 > HS > 1 > 9
(RO = Rouge One, HS = Holiday Special). I am fairly close to his order.
He did not put the Mandalorian on there because of its awesomeness.
The bootleg Holiday Special, complete with the commercials, is an interesting and fairly unique slice of 1978. The show had big ratings IIRC, and, obviously, someone with a really early consumer VCR made a tape.
I’d add “Solo” to that list, between 7 and 3. Ron Howard pulled off a friggin’ miracle.
My daughter has been watching âThe Simpsonsâ from the beginning on Disney+.
The “Hank Scorpio” episode, “You Only Move Twice”, is still awesome every time I see it.
The episodes with Conan O’Brien’s name in the credits were always gold, but the addition of Albert Brooks ad libbing was lightning in a bottle.
Baby Yoda rocks! Disney missed out on millions with no Cabbage Patch Yoda.
“The Mandalorian” is very grown up. Among other things, you see Jawa disintegrations, laying the foundation for Vader’s “No disintegrations” warning to Boba Fett in “Empire”. Plus, the baby’s ultimate purpose in the story is unclear — canon states that the Force Choke is a Dark Side power.
Also, if they had planned toys, someone would have blabbed. Disney will still make money.
Canon has Luke as someone who wouldn’t give up on someone as evil as Vader, yet the witches have him attempting to murder a child under his care and protection while he slept…
Not putting any faith in canon.
N
“3 degrees C?” by Judith Curry
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/12/24/3-degrees-c/
“Is 3 C warming over the 21st century now the âbest estimateâ? A reframing of how we think about climate change over the 21st century, and my arguments for 1 C.”
“There has been much discussion over on twitter of the new article by David Wallace-Wells: Weâre Getting a Clearer Picture of the Climate Future â and Itâs n Not as Bad as it Once Looked. âThis article is interesting for several reasons, especially since Wallace-Wells has been âalarmist in chief.â”
And they can not even tell us what the weather is going to be like in two weeks ! They have zero credibility with me on this 3 C rise from now through 2100.
Canon has Luke as someone who wouldnât give up on someone as evil as Vader, yet the witches have him attempting to murder a child under his care and protection while he sleptâŚ
Not putting any faith in canon.
The last flick was Rian Johnson cr*pping over every previous film/TV show that came before his. “Laser sword” indeed!
Filoni and Favreau are more orthodox. I’ve seen interviews with Filoni and hope he ends up running Lucasfilm after Kathleen Kennedy retires.