Hot, humid, sunny and HOT.
Yesterday was hot. Real hot. Super hot. So between that, ebay, and getting a load to my secondary location, I didn’t get much done on the garage project. On the plus side, the freezer’s bad odor is diminished with the door open and some sun shine.
Dinner was leftovers. I’m hardly using my stored food at all anymore, other than what we’d eat normally. The good news is – less to replace and a good foundation to build on..I guess.
Today I’ve got more errands to run. Auction drop offs, and auction pickups, and another run to my secondary.
More reports that wuflu doesn’t result in long term immunity, and that serious damage can be done to you even if you don’t have a really bad case. I’m still wearing my N95 indoors with people, and gloves when I have to touch anything that lots of people touch. I’m recommending you do too.
Cases, hospitalizations, and now deaths are rising. I know that there are issues with the numbers. They’re still rising. And I don’t care how much you subtract as a ‘fudge factor’ correction, we’re still way past normal seasonal flu. We’re all adults here, with differing risk tolerances, and differing opinions about what is true or not, but I’m urging you to err on the side of caution. You lose little doing so, and potentially avoid a lot. Or name me in your will if you’ve got good stuff and no one else to get it- “the Houston blogger known as Nick Flandrey” should be good enough for the lawyers to find me….
I’ll be here, in my lifeboat, watching the show on shore.
Keep stacking. It isn’t getting better soon, and it is probably gonna get a lot worse.
nick
Taking a week of vacation, before starting course prep for the Fall. Which I’m not looking forward to: with remote teaching, it means serious reworking of the courses.
Anyway, as entertainment, I took down a couple of birch trees yesterday. One, I wasn’t quite sure which way it would fall: gravity said one thing, the wind said another. So I carefully cut it to fall either directly West or directly East, and I had a rope (um…longer than the tree was high) tied to the trunk, so I could give it a hint.
Right. Best-laid plans and all that. I finished the cut, and headed off southeast, making a nice big circle toward the end of the rope. And hear this “whishing” sound, started running, and…the tree came down on my head. Thankfully, I was pretty far out, so the result was only undignified, not dangerous. Still stupid, of course.
Meanwhile, my wife is working on a garden project for the neighbor (whose little hut we’re temporarily staying in). One of the couple is into meditation, so she’s making a meditation path, lined with herbs, and the path itself is all sort of different materials. So we picked up a bunch of gravel, edging, and other stuff today.
The house is proceeding, more slowly than I would like, but the foreman swears they’ll make up the lost time. We surely do hope so, because the movers are delivering out stuff on a fixed date, and that can’t be changed any more, because they’re booked out.
And the funky neighbors continue their shenanigans. I can’t say much, because we are in the lawyer phase, but only at the blustery letter part. Our lawyer assures us that they are nuts, and we should basically ignore all letters and threats, so that’s more or less what we’re doing. We’ll see if they’re crazy enough to actually file a court case.
Lots of software companies banning “offensive” terminology. What irritates me is that the terminology has absolutely nothing to do with race. Black and white have established meanings that have to do with light, not with skin color. Moreover, lots of usages of black are positive (“being in the black”), and lots of usages of white are negative (“waving the white flag”). There’s nothing racial about blacklists and whitelists.
For that matter, there’s nothing racial about master and slave, except for USAians who never look beyond their borders. Plenty of blacks have held slaves, plenty of non-blacks have been slaves. Some Japanese game studio is getting sh!t for one of their black characters, to which they rightfully replied: their game and the character have nothing to do with the US or US blacks.
I’ve been waiting for someone to bitch at me about commonly used, non-racial terms in programming or engineering. I have a list of alternates prepared.
blacklisted -> felonlisted
finish the quarter in the black -> finish the quarter in the white
And more.
Alas for my evil plans, it hasn’t come up at work, largely because we’re not in the office and I’ve exited or muted the slack channels in which the idiot choir babble their SJW idiocy.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-8520293/MythBusters-popular-host-Grant-Imahara-dies-49-brain-aneurysm.html
Sad to see – Grant was my favorite on the build team. You never know when your time is up…
“The intern didn’t set up a Linux box with Samba to trial as a server?”
We still use CVSNT for source code management system on the gimpy file server. Runs as a service on Windows x86 or x64. Does not run on Linux. We’ve been using it since 2005 ? 2000 ? 1995 ? Cannot remember anymore. Used CVS on RS/6000 Unix boxen before that. We’ve got 20 GB of source code and benchmark files in it. Maybe 40,000 files.
I trust at some point it is standard CVS which is not locked into a single vendor.
We use Git where I currently work, but it is way too easy to do bad things to the repository from non-admin accounts. Plus, it isn’t too far from being what Dr. Pournelle called a Guru Full Employment Act.
I wouldn’t go that far, but the obscure features can get irritating at times. The new hires are running between $10-20k more than I make, and, among other rationalizations from management, is that the younger developers are more conversant in the revision control system than I am, having used it in college.
(Really thin, I know. Probably not even legal, but at nearly 52, I have to pick the battles carefully.)
Sad to see – Grant was my favorite on the build team. You never know when your time is up…
RIP. Yeah, once we get my youngest out of high school, it will be time to do a few things while we still have money and mobility.
Ray-cist.
Indeed. Saying something is black and white is not racist. It comes from having light to see something. Black print on white paper. Nothing could be clearer. But I was told that was being racist. Seriously?
What is going to happen to electrical code? White is always neutral. All other colors carry power except for green. Pink, blue, purple, orange, red, black are all power carrying wires, “hot” wires. Is that now going to change because of some silly, and lacking of intelligence, politician courting the black vote?
Sad indeed. I wonder how he died. Did he have dirt on Clinton’s and thus self terminated with three stab wounds from the back?
He was the technical brains for the team of Torri and Kari both of whom without him would have accomplished little. Grant was also used by Jamie and Adam for some really technical builds. Always liked him, his explanations, and knowledge. Would have really liked to have met him in person and spent a few hours talking.
LOL. Do they have a lawyer calling you nuts? More lawyers picking your pockets.
Probably listed as a COVID death.
Brain aneurysm. It was hiding in the URL.
I really don’t read URL’s in great detail for clues. The sites I went to that reported Grant’s demise all stated the cause of death had not been released.
A lot of news (or news-like) articles get a permanent URL based on the original headline of the article. This is sometimes useful when the news org is trying to pocwash* an “insensitive” or “divisive” headline. More often, it reflects the initial draft based on early reporting, which may have been inaccurate.
* Another term removing “black” or “white”
whitewash -> pocwash
@ray, a lot of the links I post have what I think of as ‘self-evident’ urls, so I don’t put any of the text there, or build a text link.
Anyone else who isn’t looking at the URLs for a clue to the content? It’s only a few more keystrokes, but I was skipping steps… I can take the extra steps if people like. The whole point is for you guys to actually look at the linked content.
n
WRT the language police, when does it end?
I was told by someone of irish descent that “paddy” was as offensive as “ni**er”, and that having the cops call something used to transport criminals the “paddy wagon” was like calling it the “ni**er cage”….
Which would make this joke even more offensive–
“What do you call oral sex in Ireland?”
–“Two paddys standing on opposite street corners yelling “OY, FOCK YOU!”at each other…”
n
From FEMA
–it didn’t take long to go from 1.4 million cases to over 3M… just saying.
n
Nope. The actual electric motor that drives the cooling fan seized. I’ve now had that happen at two different houses I’ve owned. He did mention the capacitor wasn’t looking great and went ahead and replaced it while he was replacing the fan motor.
That is a crying shame about Grant. He always seemed to be a nice guy, passionate about what he did, but not a kook.
Kinda scary when they’re younger than me.
n
@nick, eBay question, do you favor “free shipping” and price accordingly or list with a separate shipping cost?
Good reference for Central A/C troubleshooting and DIY repairs/parts:
https://arnoldservice.com/
Now only if you had a 3D scanner and a 3D metal printer 😉
For those who live in XXXXXXX endure an HOA and haven’t seen this (GEICO commercial)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ryqv9REMpsg
I like that one a lot. It’s the best commercial since the vw barking dogs imperial march…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEjI6xDjvsU
For those who live in XXXXXXX endure an HOA and haven’t seen this (GEICO commercial)
Florida HOA. You’ll hear about The Villages occasionally in political and/or virus news out of Florida, and that commercial captures exactly how they live in that place. In general, however, things have been really out of hand in the state over the last 15 years as the masses really believed that 10-20 years of home ownership could net them an order of magnitude increase in the value of their stucco cr*p shacks at resale.
@alan,
Ebay will tell you that “free shipping” leads to more and quicker sales. If I can ship something USPS Flat Rate, I usually price accordingly and list with “free shipping”. Since half the folks are below average though, I get offers on low cost items that are BELOW the simple cost of the “free shipping”. No, sorry, not giving you an item free AND paying to send it to you….
I use UPS ground for anything bigger that won’t fit in a flat rate box. On pure weight, the breakeven for USPS vs UPS is somewhere around 4 pounds. I use the USPS “regional rate” boxes whenever I can vs Med or Large flat rate.
The biggest sale killer is UPS “dimensional weight”. No one wants to spend money to ship air, especially if the item is large and light.
WRT the broken part, I bet a polymer print would be sufficiently strong with some design changes. If I couldn’t find a replacement on ebay (the parts houses are out) I was going to weld up a replacement myself. The geometry isn’t that bad. The casting is just way too thin, and it’s in tension. I don’t think putting a casting in tension is a great idea. (or it could be cut from a solid block, or with modern CAM tools, laser cut and folded from sheet stock.)
The funny part is that the seller tried to wave me off. His little bandsaw broke, he couldn’t get the replacement part, so he was ‘parting out’ his saw on ebay. He thought I was looking for the same part he broke (part of the tensioning mechanism). What happened though is I broke the lower part of the assembly, and he broke the top part of the assembly, so he did have what I needed. It will probably break again at which point the whole thing is either junk, or a project to recreate the part. It’s been sitting in my garage unused for 8-10 years and every time I think, man, I could cut this thing in no time if that bandsaw was running, I kick myself for not just fixing it long ago…
n
OMFG, I LOL’D at the barking dogs, and then the greyhound walks thru…..
n
He was the technical brains for the team of Torri and Kari both of whom without him would have accomplished little.
The show had writers and technical consultants, but the “build” team always needed one credible on-screen member.
Grant replaced Scottie early on, IIRC, who, ironically, also died fairly young within the last few years.
Despite appearances, Scottie graduated from one of the most prestigious auto body repair programs in the country, and she worked for Jamie prior to the start of “Mythbusters”.
I have a new blog post on testing some expired iodine products (water sterilizer and potassium iodide):
https://yarchive.net/blog/expired-iodine/
(Not actually a reply, but since it’s both prepper stuff and chemistry stuff, I figure it’s worth mentioning here; it’d have been exactly RBT’s sort of thing.)
Hilarious. Loved this one the moment I saw it. I make an occasional hobby out of trolling the Nextdoor app where I monitor for anyone complaining about their covenants or HOA and then I reply and say “It’d be best to get a majority of neighbors together and disband the HOA” and then watch the shitstorm that follows. lol People blindly sign the covenants when they purchase a home and then 5 years later are complaining that they can’t have an outbuilding, or can’t have a certain type of fencing, or can’t have an above ground pool. I made it a point to live in a housing development with no covenants and no active HOA.
Hot, humid, sunny and HOT.
I fondly remember the old Houston slogan from the 1990s ???
“Houston is HOT !”
“29 Best Near Future Science Fiction Books” by Dan Livingston
https://best-sci-fi-books.com/29-best-near-future-science-fiction-books/
I have read “2001: A Space Odyssey”, “To Say Nothing of the Dog”, “Spin”, “The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress”, “The Girl with All the Gifts”, “Fahrenheit 451”, “Red Mars”, “World War Z”, “Little Brother”, “We Are Legion (We Are Bob)”, “Neuromancer”, “Lock In”, “The Martian”, “Ready Player One”, and “Snow Crash”. All are recommended.
I have “Dark Matter” as my next book to read.
I swallowed the bitter bile and made a cash offer to my “roommate” to go away. I opened with a reasonable amount, but on the low side. She hasn’t responded yet other than to say “I’ll think about it”. Funny, but she doesn’t seem to “get” negotiating. If she thinks it is too low she might just say “No” and not counter. It is not some wily negotiating tactic, she just doesn’t grasp the bargaining concept.
Although, legally, I don’t have too many other options I am better informed than she is. A few subtle references that an eviction order filed in court is public record and will negatively affect her getting another apartment (some places check on those things) and about airing dirty laundry in court (she is intensely worried about other people knowing her “business”. Almost paranoid).
I also threw a “Hail Mary” pass and contacted my state representative (R) and senator (D). The current pending legislation would extend the eviction moratorium for a full year. I urged them them to consider an exemption for “unwanted guests in single family homes” as that is not the true intent of the law. Who knows, it might gain some traction.
Excellent. Good luck.
Some of the stuff is blocked because of a paywall. Other stuff is blocked because I run an ad-blocker. I make no effort to continue to those sites. Most are so loaded with ads the pages sometimes do not work at all, slow response, or just plain unreadable.
These “unpimp your auto” ads from VW still crack me up. The hapless Trey, watching as his abomination is trebuchet’d away is beautiful.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=e1MNEqCr748
Frantic week. Our assembly is voting tonight to spend $22 million, some portion of that CARES act funds, to buy four properties to house homeless. And a second ordinance to allow homeless shelters in B3 zoning which stretches across city. Not done following the rules, public process virtually ignored, rammed thru for our own good, with the claim of ‘no economic impact’. Dismissing us as NIMBYs while ignoring our rational argument that they’ve ignored their own priority list and violated rules left and right.
It has caught all of the city off guard.
A large number of highly intelligent people have mobilized. Tonight’s goal is to slow it down to give other strategies a chance. We expect to fail but there’s a backup plan.
Anchorage is in deep poop.
My condenser fan motor was getting to the point of seizing. The bearings were very stiff and the motor did not spin easily. Thus after the repair guy got the system working I told him to order a new motor and replace it within the next few days. I did notice this new motor (universal, not exact replacement) seems to move a lot more air than the old motor. Maybe the old motor was dragging for some time and I just did not notice the reduced air flow.
Capacitors are relatively cheap and do become defective. Best to replace while doing the other motor work. I think I would have had all the capacitors replaced while the system is being repaired.
The Daily Mail is awful. My adblocker shows 75 item blocked on that article. I really have to want to view something on their site before I’ll pause ABP.
WRT ads on the linked pages, I ran abp and wasn’t happy with the results on Daily Mail or other sites so I’ve been running uBlock Origin for a while.
DM is very readable, with almost all the intrusive stuff blocked. The pop up video player doesn’t anymore, but I can’t remember if I killed that with a setting or if it was just in uBlock.
zerohedge is unreadable without a blocker, as is Gateway pundit. uBlock works well there as well.
I read them both for specific reasons and viewpoints, and think they’re worth the time to at least skim the headlines.
I just assumed that by now, everyone was running an ad blocker. I only know how bad they are because of my tablet while traveling.
I NEVER turn off the blocker, and have no trouble. I can’t see any reason at all not to run a blocker. If I end up on a site that won’t allow me to proceed, I just leave.
I also try very hard to avoid paywalled content. I don’t subscribe to any sites and shouldn’t even see any articles behind the wall to link to… If I come across someone else’s link to a paywalled article, going in thru google usually works. IE, copy a few lines that you can see, paste into google search, and usually the second link result will get you to the content without triggering the paywall.
I’ve been waiting for the online ad revenue model to implode for a couple of years. Rates paid for placement DID implode a year or more back, but the ecosystem hasn’t died yet. I can’t imagine anyone in the upper half of the IQ spectrum clicking on ads at this point, unless you are on a specific industry site, and the ad is directly relevant to your industry, like trade magazines.
Remember when Proctor and Gamble cut their digital ad spend? They said it essentially drove zero business.
I’m not sure why anyone would spend on ad placement at this point.
n
Right. Best-laid plans and all that. I finished the cut, and headed off southeast, making a nice big circle toward the end of the rope. And hear this “whishing” sound, started running, and…the tree came down on my head. Thankfully, I was pretty far out, so the result was only undignified, not dangerous. Still stupid, of course.
Run, Brad, Run !
Glad you are ok ! I’ve hurt my pride many times, that is much better than a broken arm or leg (been there, done that).
We still use CVSNT for source code management system on the gimpy file server. Runs as a service on Windows x86 or x64. Does not run on Linux. We’ve been using it since 2005 ? 2000 ? 1995 ? Cannot remember anymore. Used CVS on RS/6000 Unix boxen before that. We’ve got 20 GB of source code and benchmark files in it. Maybe 40,000 files.
I trust at some point it is standard CVS which is not locked into a single vendor.
I don’t know. All of the files do have the comma lowercase v appended on their filenames. But I suspect that there is some binary stuff prepended in the files.
WRT the language police, when does it end?
I was told by someone of irish descent that “paddy” was as offensive as “ni**er”, and that having the cops call something used to transport criminals the “paddy wagon” was like calling it the “ni**er cage”….
My grandfather was called “Micky” by his fellow professors at TAMU due to the McGuire last name and being of Irish heritage. I was 30 or so before I realized that was racist. His first name was John. I still look at his textbooks on Amazon every once in a while.
Yikes, another list with some PC stinkers on it.
The Windup Girl – violent rape and sexual scenes, an eco ending that was so lame I groaned out loud and then blocked it from my memory. ONE original idea, having to store energy in wind up mechanisms.
The Handmaid’s Tale- another groaner that will only be liked by the kind of people who believe that a radical oppressive CHRISTIAN theocracy is the “logical and chilling conclusion” of current trends… and that a novel from 1985 is in imminent danger of being banned.
The Three-Body Problem – favorite of the ‘puppy kickers’ during the whole Hugo nominating mess, is ponderous and impenetrable, and reads like at least two different books mashed together. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone, even as firestarter.
World War Z – I don’t even remember if I finished this. I started it on vacation, but it was so ‘meh’ I honestly don’t know if I put it down and never picked it back up.
The Stephenson and Gibson are true classics that launched a genre, and the idea of “cyberspace”.
The Girl with All the Gifts -was surprising and interesting, and not what I expected. It feels very ‘cramped’ for lack of a better term. Recommended.
Halting State by Charles Stross- I was buying a lot of signed firsts, and Charles Stross novels when this came out so I’m actually surprised I haven’t read it.
I didn’t care for Linda Nagata’s other books to be receptive to this one, but maybe that’s wrong. I’ll think about it.
The Bradbury was something I read so long ago, I don’t even remember it, nor the Heinlein. Both are probably head and shoulders above half this list though.
Spin – didn’t Greg Bear do one similar to this where earth is isolated from the universe because we are the only species that collapses the quantum uncertainty when we observe things, thus locking them into one state? The other inhabitants of the universe do it to keep us from destroying them. Or was that THIS novel?
Jeez, I’m in no mood for a 1970s russian novel. Holy cr@p that must be bleak. At least it’s uncharacteristically short.
The Dervish House – which Ian is this? the one who is the trade unionist, who just can’t get over the fact that unions suck? or the other one…. I’d give it a try if it’s the other one.
There are several others on that list that I might have purchased when I was still just buying books without knowing the authors, or without a solid recommendation. I might give them a try, but his judgement is suspect since he included the others.
Off the top of my head, and out of my bookshelf-
Jennifer Government by Max Berry is a fun “near future” novel on the folly of letting multinational corps run the world.
Mother of Storms by John Barnes is less fun but a powerful novel set in a near future, strong sexual themes and situations though. And consider that he’s written a dozen or more books that have sold well, he’s a proven wordsmith.
n
I swallowed the bitter bile and made a cash offer to my “roommate” to go away. I opened with a reasonable amount, but on the low side. She hasn’t responded yet other than to say “I’ll think about it”. Funny, but she doesn’t seem to “get” negotiating. If she thinks it is too low she might just say “No” and not counter. It is not some wily negotiating tactic, she just doesn’t grasp the bargaining concept.
Is she eating your food also in addition to using your space, your electricity, your water, your sewer, your trash service, and your internet for free ?
She looks more like a spouse than a tenant !
The Girl with All the Gifts -was surprising and interesting, and not what I expected. It feels very ‘cramped’ for lack of a better term. Recommended.
The movie adaptation is very good if you want to give your daughters some good nightmares.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4547056/
The Windup Girl – violent rape and sexual scenes, an eco ending that was so lame I groaned out loud and then blocked it from my memory. ONE original idea, having to store energy in wind up mechanisms.
The Handmaid’s Tale- another groaner that will only be liked by the kind of people who believe that a radical oppressive CHRISTIAN theocracy is the “logical and chilling conclusion” of current trends… and that a novel from 1985 is in imminent danger of being banned.
The Three-Body Problem – favorite of the ‘puppy kickers’ during the whole Hugo nominating mess, is ponderous and impenetrable, and reads like at least two different books mashed together. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone, even as firestarter.
I passed on these also.
BTW, the book “Jumper” starts off with a violent homosexual rape scene of a juvenile but it is still an awesome book and series.
https://www.amazon.com/Jumper-Novel-Steven-Gould/dp/0765378167/
Spin – didn’t Greg Bear do one similar to this where earth is isolated from the universe because we are the only species that collapses the quantum uncertainty when we observe things, thus locking them into one state? The other inhabitants of the universe do it to keep us from destroying them. Or was that THIS novel?
I believe so but am not sure.
Alan Dean Foster wrote an awesome short story where the Earth was locked down as the results of aliens getting together and putting a shield around the Earth. It is called “With Friends Like These…”. There are PDFs around the intertubes if you do not have a copy of this out of print book.
https://www.amazon.com/Friends-Like-These-Alan-Foster/dp/0345323904?tag=ttgnet-20
@norman, thanks for the link and the experiment.
I’d suspect that iodine pills are like most things, in that the expiration date is more of a guideline.
The canned food says that taste and appearance might degrade but most of the nutrition is still there, and the .mil looked at the drug stockpile and determined that even 20 years past the date, most of the effectiveness is still there.
As I point out here in these pixels, I routinely eat stuff past its BB date.
n
(I also point out when it sucks)
“‘We have an untenable situation’: Houstonians weigh in on Turner’s proposed 2-week shutdown”
https://www.chron.com/coronavirus/article/We-opened-up-too-quickly-Houstonians-weigh-in-15404236.php?cmpid=trend
The dumbocrats want to shut down the Houston metropolitan area for “just two weeks” to kill the virus off. In fact, the Harris County Judge was actually crying at the podium yesterday. What a dweeb !
If they persuade Governor Abbott to shut down Houston and Dallas, the shutdown will probably extend to past the fall election. Dumbocrats will be allowed to vote but no one else.
These “unpimp your auto” ads from VW still crack me up. The hapless Trey, watching as his abomination is trebuchet’d away is beautiful.
Didn’t VW get into trouble because they got caught pimping their “clean diesel” engines.
xkcd: cursed chair
https://xkcd.com/2332/
Ok, the logic is not strong with beret guy.
Explained at:
https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2332:_Cursed_Chair
“I trust at some point it is standard CVS which is not locked into a single vendor.”
I don’t know. All of the files do have the comma lowercase v appended on their filenames. But I suspect that there is some binary stuff prepended in the files.
Hopefully, the developers got lazy and use standard CVS file formats. Revision control is the last place you want vendor lock-in.
I went to an all-boys, Jesuit prep school. I read like a maniac even back then and picked up _Young Torless_ at some bookstore. Concerns the homosexual rape of a student at boarding school.
Funny thing was Fr Carlo Farina, SJ had stamped his named on the flyleaf and elsewhere. Staid, dour Father Farina. Still makes me laugh.
A lot of drunks say the same thing after snagging a “date” from the local dive bar.
Haven’t we heard this before? Two weeks to flatten the curve? Well, we’re in the 18th week of that “flatten the curve” shutdown.
What’s the old saying? “Fool me once…”
I think America’s liberal MSM and most of the rest of the world is completely flabbergasted that, apparently, an increasing large percentage of America doesn’t really gives a shit about COVID-19 anymore.
It’ll be interesting to see how priorities change in a couple of weeks if they let that extra $2400/month in unemployment come to a halt. Especially when almost 2/3 of people currently on unemployment are making more than they did when employed.
The liberal MSM is largely an urban phenomenon. People in large American cities do have a different risk than people not in the cities.
In related news, “How could he have won? I don’t know anyone who voted for him!”
True. All the major news outlets are HQ’d in places like NYC and they tend to view everything through that filter. That’s why every snowstorm in NYC is front page news.
That was an interesting post about iodine. Thank you Norman.
“Peacock Launching Tomorrow With Free & Premium Tiers”
https://www.comingsoon.net/tv/news/1141746-peacock-launching-tomorrow
Will have “The Blacklist” and “This Is Us”.
$4.99 / month with ads and $9.99 / month without ads.
I might have to think about this. I love “The BlackList”. Wait, that is a racist name !
ADD: The morons at NBC are not going to support Rokus ? What is wrong with these people ? Oh, money.
https://variety.com/2020/digital/news/hbo-max-peacock-roku-amazon-streaming-1234703977/
“Linus Torvalds: ‘I Hope AVX512 Dies a Painful Death’”
https://www.extremetech.com/computing/312673-linus-torvalds-i-hope-avx512-dies-a-painful-death
The Itanium is back ! Kill it ! Kill it !
Isn’t “Peacock” male dominated sexism? And “Peahen” a put down to woman with blue hair?
“Peathing” would insult about 57 alternate sexes.
They could name it “Pea” but that’ll insult the folks that prefer other bodily wastes. And those who don’t identify as green. Well, poop, there’s no way to win.
Not on Roku? Oh, well.
For those regular TV watchers among you who have several shows you enjoy watching…
Add up all of the networks that have shows you like to watch. Multiply by $10. Is it still cheaper than cable? Especially, when a lot of these won’t be renewing contracts with the likes of Netflix in the future as they’ll want to drive subscribers to their own streaming services.
For those regular TV watchers among you who have several shows you enjoy watching…
Add up all of the networks that have shows you like to watch. Multiply by $10. Is it still cheaper than cable? Especially, when a lot of these won’t be renewing contracts with the likes of Netflix in the future as they’ll want to drive subscribers to their own streaming services.
It is way cheaper now than the $150/month that I was paying for DirecTV.
Netflix – 4 user version $17/month
Hulu – 2 user version $10/month
Amazon Prime – $130/year ??? plus free two day shipping
CBS – $6/month addon to Amazon Prime
Disney+ – $7/month
Total of $50/month for the streaming options on our three Rokus.
Of course, none of those include the NFL (who I could care less about now with the Black national anthem), the MLB (no Astros playing anyway), and the Texas Aggies Football (they probably aren’t going to play either).
I have Sling. Orange and Blue. Plus the whatever sports package because someone here wants to watch college football and Nascar. $65/month.
If not for the sports stuff, I would drop Sling. Yeah, nice selection of stuff, almost everything I had with DirecTV that I seldom watched and even more. But it’s a pain the butt to navigate. Or maybe I have a problem.
I don’t count Amazon Prime. Or the cost of my ‘net connection. I would have both anyway. Ok, maybe not Prime, I need to put a pencil to that “free shipping” thing.
Most of what we watch is over the air. Local news, Wheel of Fortune, StarTrek or various cop shows and random stuff on PBS and MeTV. Oh!
And don’t forget The Price Is Right in the morning. <— I leave the room. The goofiness is too much.
Well, beats paying DirecTv $140/month.
–it didn’t take long to go from 1.4 million cases to over 3M… just saying.
H1N1 was 60 million infections estimated IIRC. Long way to go to catch up to that, but a rapid, consistent increase to within shouting distance of that number by election day would be the end of Trump and a Republican Senate.
We’re catching up to the 4th of July infections in terms of incubation delay. See what trends look like next week.
I thought she became a dentist and is still kicking.
Funny, but she doesn’t seem to “get” negotiating.
I lived in Iowa for about five years in the late 1960s. Folks there, nice folks, did not seem able to negotiate. I sold two cars during that time. Remember, that was when the only way to advertise was in the newspaper classifieds. Also, only dealers had access to pricing guides, so setting an asking price was done by cruising the used car lots and finding comparable cars.
I advertised both cars for top (but reasonable) dollar, expecting to be negotiated down a little. Most people answering the ad first asked the price (a strategy was to never put the price in the ad,) and then said it was too much and hung up. I tried a lot of tricks to keep them on the phone, but never suggested they make an offer. Usually, I said they had to see how nice the car was, and drive it before they questioned the asking price, hint hint… But, no, they ran. Fortunately, for both cars, I got live ones, who didn’t seen too interested in the price. Sold both of them for my asking price. Yay.
The first car was my 1965 VW bug, the only new car I have ever bought. It was getting a little shabby at four years of driving in horrible winters, but still looked near new. It would need a new muffler, battery, and the original tires were thin. After I sold it, I saw it in the company parking lot. After each weekend, I would see new work had been done. Clearly, the new owner intended to keep it in top shape, and was spending money on top of the high price he had paid for it. One day I was walking down a long hall with no escape route, and saw him coming my way in the distance. He greeted me and said he was overjoyed with the car! I thanked him and got away. A good lesson, most people are nowhere near as frugal as I am.
Oh, I also bought a used motorcycle while living in Iowa. As was my usual practice, I offered a little below the asking price to several private party sellers. All of them turned me down, and didn’t counter my offers. Finally found one at an asking price I was willing to pay.
One more story. When I bought my 1994 Dodge Ram 1500 about five years ago, I offered the seller five dollars MORE than asking, rounding up from $XX95 to $XX00. We both laughed over that. He is a good guy, who trades at least one motorcycle a year, but apparently few cars. He is in his eighties!
The Premium tier is bundled with Xfinity cable. We started watching Law & Order Criminal Intent on it.
I swallowed the bitter bile and made a cash offer to my “roommate” to go away. I opened with a reasonable amount, but on the low side. She hasn’t responded yet other than to say “I’ll think about it”. Funny, but she doesn’t seem to “get” negotiating. If she thinks it is too low she might just say “No” and not counter. It is not some wily negotiating tactic, she just doesn’t grasp the bargaining concept.
Although, legally, I don’t have too many other options I am better informed than she is. A few subtle references that an eviction order filed in court is public record and will negatively affect her getting another apartment (some places check on those things) and about airing dirty laundry in court (she is intensely worried about other people knowing her “business”. Almost paranoid).
Have you considered taking up the piano or the violin ? Practicing at 3 am is not beyond the pale.
All from the same small antibody study. A medium sized study in Sweden found T-Cell response even in people with low antibody production and the response was strong across all patients tested. Also, there is some evidence of cross-immunity from coronavirus colds.
I believe none of the medical or statistical claims concerning the Chinese Flu. Both sides are slanting the statistics and analyses and at least one side is just making things up.
You know, JLP, you’ve had a life-long hankering to take up the bagpipes, I just know it.
“U.S. LawShield Presents: What You Say WILL Be Used Against You…”
https://lp.uslawshield.com/webinar-exclusive-7-13-stream/
or
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzlAC29YhfA
There is much advertising there but, there is a lot of good advice.
And take off that NRA bumper sticker ! Or that “protected by Smith & Wesson” bumber sticker !
You take the high road and I’ll take the low road, and I’ll get to Scotland before you.
Just two sides? Silly you. There are probably half a dozen sides.
I believe none of the medical or statistical claims concerning the Chinese Flu. Both sides are slanting the statistics and analyses and at least one side is just making things up.
The hysteria will continue until November. The virus is Plugs only chance to win.
At least some of the record numbers from Florida on Sunday are being called into question.
Peacock Launching Tomorrow With Free & Premium Tiers
The Premium tier is bundled with Xfinity cable. We started watching Law & Order Criminal Intent on it.
We have xfinity cable internet. We do not use an xfinity modem so we do not get xfinity tv or any of their addons.
My wife connected our living room samsung tv to the internet this evening. First time in 4 years. She REALLY wants Disney Plus and using the TV apps looks like the simplest way to get it without new hardware. She’s been poking at it for half an hour at least so far.
n
Huh, scanner has our constables working on something. They have multiple suspects in the cars, the helo in the air, and now the K9 unit is out…
Missed the beginning of the call, so I hope I figure it out.
n
You know, JLP, you’ve had a life-long hankering to take up the bagpipes, I just know it.
Or you could take the opposite tack and give her the silent treatment.
I.e., never initiate a conversation unless it’s absolutely necessary, and when you do, use as few words as possible. When she speaks, respond only to a direct question and keep your answers brief, monosyllabic if possible.
Such non-communication is quite irritating.
My wife connected our living room samsung tv to the internet this evening. First time in 4 years. She REALLY wants Disney Plus and using the TV apps looks like the simplest way to get it without new hardware. She’s been poking at it for half an hour at least so far.
Good luck. I had to get a Roku box for my four year old LG 4K 55 inch tv in 2019. My tv apps were not upgradable to the point required by Disney+.
Actually, I prefer the Roku Ultra box. It just works and the user interface makes some sense. The simplistic remote is actually very usable. I would like to have a keyboard and mouse for it also but, c’est la vie.
https://www.roku.com/products/roku-ultra
Shoot, I’ll bet that you have four Roku boxes in the garage.
i think we got a year of Disney+ for “free” for being Verizon Wireless customers. I never watch it. I browsed it when we first got it and everything was either uninteresting to me (old hokey stuff, kids stuff) or things that I’ve seen 100 times (Marvel, Star Wars, etc.).
”
Shoot, I’ll bet that you have four Roku boxes in the garage.”
–actually 2x apple tvs that can’t be upgraded enough.
1x roku that can’t be upgraded
3x some generic probably based on kodi that we haven’t tried yet
2x tivos, can’t be upgraded
so yeah, should have had choices…..
n
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/supreme-court-justice-ginsburg-hospitalized-possible-infection
n
Shoot, I’ll bet that you have four Roku boxes in the garage.
The streaming services are cutting off older Roku units.
My former corporate masters are still working out whether they want to support Roku with HBO Now, but my guess is that they will need to buy somebody out as they did with Uverse Mobile a decade ago.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/supreme-court-justice-ginsburg-hospitalized-possible-infection
I don’t want to wish any one else harm, but it is way past time for her to retire. Wow, at this stage in the game that would be … controversial. And mittens would vote against Amy Coney Barrett just to be “fair”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Coney_Barrett
I don’t want to wish any one else harm, but it is way past time for her to retire. Wow, at this stage in the game that would be … controversial. And mittens would vote against Amy Coney Barrett just to be “fair”.
The tradition with the payola seat is a rubber stamp Senate vote, but Trump isn’t going to get any court pick through this year without a fight. Breyer retiring/dying and Barrett nominated to fill that “Roe” deciding vote seat previously held by Blackmun would be uglier.
Ginsberg will hold on. The real court work is done for the year.
My former corporate masters are still working out whether they want to support Roku with HBO Now, but my guess is that they will need to buy somebody out as they did with Uverse Mobile a decade ago.
“Why HBO Max, Peacock Are Deadlocked in Talks With Roku and Amazon”
https://variety.com/2020/digital/news/hbo-max-peacock-roku-amazon-streaming-1234703977/
It is all about the money. Roku wants a cut of everything. And I don’t blame them.
Well, our county sheriff beat the carpetbagger from Austin by 78% to 22%:
https://results.enr.clarityelections.com/TX/Fort_Bend/103778/web.255599/#/summary
I expected him to win but not a landslide. She was trying to stomp him down using a fake human trafficking story. We were getting 3 to 4 four color mailout pieces a day from her for the last two weeks. She must have spent ten million dollars.
Good night, stay out of Mexico (836 dead so far today):
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
Maybe it is just the cartels killing everyone with a fever.
Could be they’re classifying the headless corpses in the mass graves as wuflu patients….
but el presidente said they didn’t have the covid like those nasty gringos, so it must be true….
n
Today is the 14th again? Groundhog day? Blech.
It was a short story collection. There was also a sequel: “…Who Needs Enemies?”