High of mid 90s for Galveston today. No shade on the beach. Hopefully the breeze will cool it down. Hopefully.
The drive down was uneventful. Light traffic. I finally got the blutooth adapter working in my truck so I could listen to youtube on the trip. I liked it a lot. For some reason my xm isn’t working at the moment, and commercial radio sucks. I’m tired of the CDs I have in the truck. youtube to the rescue.
This place is giving me the covid cooties. I can tell from the look of the dirt that they lied about their cleaning and disinfecting routine. And I don’t have a lot of experience but does every beach house rental have a ton of poorly done or half done remodel projects? Or is it just the ones I’ve been in? Nothing in the house has escaped the half-azzed attentions of the blind drunken handyman.
Kids are loving it, so there is that. Wife needed to get out of the house too. Heck, maybe I did as well. We’ll see how it goes.
I better get cracking.
n
(you get to stacking)
Lynn, your statement yesterday about backing “renewable” energy sources with gas turbines is not quite accurate. You could greatly overbuild your renewable sources and store the excess for use when the sun goes down. There’s pumped storage* and there’s giant banks of lithium batteries**. See? The woke Greens are right! There’s no need for fossil fuels!
* ought to work great in Texas in the Summer
** pronounced “ecological disaster”
We finally got 1/2″ of rain in the night Monday, wee hours. Need more but it helped. Finally the temperatures have cooled down to the bearable 90s.
I went shopping yesterday. Stores are stocked wierdly. United was out of Dasani bottled water in cases.
Big Lots was out of toilet bowl cleaner and canned tomatoes. I have my own canned tomatoes, but i just noticed the lack as I was shopping. They are putting out their fall merchandise, so lots of new product but also lots of gaps in the shelves for staples. I’ve never seen Big Lots not have a full selection of bowl cleaner in two or three brands.
Dollar General had liquid toilet bowl cleaner but no gel type, and only their house brand. They had canned tomatoes.
Walmart still has designated entrance and exit BUT both are now at the same entrance – divided only by a rope. So instead of entering through the market and exiting at the central doors, they are funnelling everyone in and out within the same ~30 foot space. I do not go to Walmart unless there are things I cannot get elsewhere, and I generally don’t buy food at Walmart.
I bought Aldi’s house brand of 1000 sheet roll toilet paper and kleenex a while back. Both are fine for use, I will buy them in future. The 1000 sheet roll is as good as Scott (most of the knock offs are lousy). I prefer Puffs tissues still but even in bountiful times they can be hard to find without the lotion in them.
Our Aldi’s has rearranged the whole store, and opened it up so we don’t have to walk the whole maze any longer. They moved produce right up front. Suddenly they are busier than I’ve ever seen them.
This place is giving me the covid cooties. I can tell from the look of the dirt that they lied about their cleaning and disinfecting routine. And I don’t have a lot of experience but does every beach house rental have a ton of poorly done or half done remodel projects? Or is it just the ones I’ve been in? Nothing in the house has escaped the half-azzed attentions of the blind drunken handyman.
Harsh, humid environment and, IIRC, Formosan termites came in through Houston. Maintenance is a losing battle from the moment the original coat of paint is dry on a structure. I’m guessing the landlords aren’t the original family who built and ran the rental. I saw it all the time in FL. Marginal or negative returns on beach property isn’t something newbie owners really understand being the price for living “Margaritaville”, in particular absentee AirBNB superhosts.
Not your problem as long as the AC works. Just don’t get curious and look at the filter.
With the bar-only/minimal-food bars closed on Galveston, I doubt the place has seen a lot of use this summer, especially if the rent is pricey.
Surface contact isn’t a concern with COVID in non-medical settings. It just doesn’t spread that way.
This summarizes it.
I awoke to 60f degrees breeze through the French doors. It was chilly for once. Could fall be around the corner. I still have so much to do. The handyman is out of quarantine, never got sick from his exposure, and is restarting work on our sidewalk today. While he was in quarantine, some scum, pried open his shed and stole most if his tools and equipment. He called the police and filled a report but they couldn’t be bothered to come look or investigate. What kind of thief takes shovels in addition to power tools?
What kind of thief takes shovels in addition to power tools?
Nice USA-made shovel? I’m sad we left ours in FL when we departed in 2010. I never thought that I would be unable to buy another one like it.
What kind of thief takes shovels in addition to power tools?
One who wants to work. Uh, no.
I have this misplaced fear of burglaries. I would rather confront a robber and have a chance of preventing my loss. I know that is a bad idea. In addition to possible harm to me, I would probably be convicted of some violence toward the scum.
Don’t tell the Party of Science, you know, the Dumbo ProgLibTurds. That is against the narrative of controlling the sheeple.
Sunny and hot here. No one on the beach.
n
I was with a small group of retired folk on the Paris subway some years ago. Two were retired police officers, and one was a retired chief of a small town. As we were exiting a subway car, a pickpocket attempted to steal one of our group’s wallet. He raised a ruckus, and the crook ran. I ran after him, and yelled over my shoulder whether he got anything. The answer was no, so I broke off. Good thing. I later found out from my police friends that I would probably have been in more trouble than the crook. Certain crimes, such as pickpocketing, are tolerated in Europe, but violence is usually not. I don’t think I would have lasted very long in a French jail.
OTOH, another day we saw a young woman sitting on the subway. She was rolling a very sharp-looking wooden pencil through her fingers. Sure looked like a warning to me.
Hoping for advice and/or recommendations.
My dear sister, who is a saint of procrastination, has had her garage door jammed in place about two feet off the floor for years. I despaired of ever getting her to call in a repairman for a look, and decided to undertake repairs myself.
The motor is getting power, but it unable to turn the chain. Aha! A clew!
I dragged over a rickety stepladder, climbed up, and sure enough, the guide for the chain is jammed solid by rust to the rail on which it slides – well, used to slide. Couldn’t even budge it with several hefty belts from a hammer. (One of my preferred fixit it methods, btw.
So of course the guide-slide combo is complicated and hard to reach. Can anybody recommend a good (I don’t give a rat’s patoot if it is “eco-friendly”) rust remover?
My plan is to first bust loose the guide from the slide, then take a wire brush/rust remover to the rest of the slide. Apparently no maintenance has been done to the entire mechanism since the house was built forty years ago. Sigh.
She also has a woodpecker problem, which I would solve with a flamethrower, but she loves the darned flying drills, so there goes several thousand bucks for new siding. Sigh, again.
While I am reminiscing, why aren’t ordinary people fighting back against the rioters on today’s streets? I seldom look at some of the videos posted, but I did see the one of the guy who was kicked in the head recently. This was a tragic end to a rather long confrontation. Almost no one came to his aid until it was too late. In some communities, it would have been different.
I did see a video of some sort of scuffle at Sturgis. Supposedly, some rioter kicked a Harley, and the bikers started to close in on him. I say supposedly, because the video I saw was too shaky and missed too much of the action to really confirm the caption. Anyway, it clearly showed the police stepping in to protect the rioters, who seemed to have been whisked off to safety far away. Some of the police formed a ragged line to stop the bikers, who seemed overly polite. C’mon, in my day, there would have been a mild form of “reasoning” with that guy who kicked the bike. Sleepy Joe probably has a similar story to tell. As OFD said, I can’t wait to pop some corn and sit back to watch. Not.
Re: rust remover – the googles/bings/ducks say
Evapo-Rust Original Super Safe Rust Remover. Previous. …
Iron OUT Rust Stain Remover Spray Gel. See More Reviews. …
WD-40 Specialist Rust Remover Soak. Previous. …
Rust Converter ULTRA. See More Reviews. …
CLR Calcium Lime Rust Remover. …
Metal Rescue Rust Remover Bath. …
Loctite Naval Jelly Rust Dissolver. …
Whink Rust Stain Remover.
All available at your local hardware/big orange/big blue box store. WD-40 Rust spray might be more convenient. Get more than one.
William Q, I grew up in the rust belt, and have found the best rust dissolver to be Kano Aero Kroil. It has never failed me. It does take several hours to work, so maybe not for quick jobs. It is expensive, and can be hard to find. Lacking that, I have heard stories about a 50/50 mixture of automatic transmission fluid and acetone as a good alternative, but have never tried it.
This guy is very thorough, and reviews several products here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUEob2oAKVs
Oh, you probably already know this, but first disengage the opener and make sure the door works well. If the slide is preventing that, disengage the link from the door. Another suggestion is to use a broken hacksaw blade to clean out the guide grooves. If that is not right, improvise a scrap of steel with a small hook filed or ground and run it along the grooves, tapping it with that hammer. Just some thoughts. Eventually you will get it unstuck and operating. Another thought is to get a whole new unit… jus’ sayin’ Good luck.
So of course the guide-slide combo is complicated and hard to reach. Can anybody recommend a good (I don’t give a rat’s patoot if it is “eco-friendly”) rust remover?
WD40 can’t get it moving? Depending on the metal, old school Coca Cola?
At least with either of those you don’t have to worry about skin contact. The Coke is a bit sticky, however.
Garage doors are something I call a pro to deal with. One of the spring-connected cables in my opener broke one night, and it sounded like a gun went off in my garage.
Just received this email a few minutes ago. Hmm, BB is watching.
medicare dot gov
What to know about contact tracing
If you’ve been in close contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19, you may be contacted by a contact tracer or public health worker from your state or local health department in an effort to help slow the spread of the disease. Here’s what to know if you get a call:
A contact tracer may call to let you know you may have been exposed to someone with COVID-19. All information you share with a contact tracer, like who you’ve been in contact with and your recent whereabouts, is confidential.
You may be asked to self-quarantine for 14 days. This means staying home, monitoring your health, and maintaining social distance from others at all times.
You may be asked to monitor your health and watch for symptoms of COVID-19. Notify your doctor if you develop symptoms, and seek medical care if your symptoms worsen or become severe.
Contact Tracing [link]
Be aware of scammers pretending to be COVID-19 contact tracers. Legitimate contact tracers will never ask for your Medicare Number or financial information. If someone calls and asks for personal information, like your Medicare Number, hang up and report it to us at 1-800-MEDICARE.
Sincerely,
The Medicare Team
That guy could be a barista or an accountant. Some profession where you expect people to be reliable and responsible. In the evening, he kicks people in the head for fun. He has lost the veneer of civilization. I find it hard to understand how they think. If they get their socialist paradise, the new police and the secret police will be MUCH harsher than the current police. Kicking someone in the head will have much worse consequences than he could experience today.
Regular people don’t fight back because you’re fighting the mob. You might defeat one person, but then the mob comes after you. And if they find out who you are they will try to get you fired, demonstrate outside your house, etc.
It’s gonna be ugly when ordinary people start fighting back.
Garage doors are something I call a pro to deal with. One of the spring-connected cables in my opener broke one night, and it sounded like a gun went off in my garage.
Definitely. If you are not comfortable working on these please get a pro. Professionals are not immune to accidents. When I was shopping for garage doors for my new garage a couple of years ago, I happened across a gruesome picture of a pro who had a 400 lb door across the back of his shoulders and neck. There was no caption, but the large pool of blood said it all. Never work alone, and always have an escape.
That last part is good. I have one remaining 45′ trailer I used for storage while building the new garage. It has a sectional roll-up door just like a garage door, but smaller. Recently its spring set screws loosened, and the door will have to be lifted with a jack and block and tackle or come along to get it open. I am pretty sure I can do all the work from the outside. I will not work from the inside because there is no other exit. Waiting for cooler weather to do this. When I empty it, it will be sold.
Oh, and I always stand away from an operating door. Watching someone walk under an operating door scares me. My springs are captive on the shaft, but door tracks have been known to fail. Even a small piece falling can cause injury. In extreme bad luck, a sharp piece can pierce an artery, causing death. Rare, but why take chances?
Amen to this. I’ve always been brand-loyal to Puffs, but finding them in stock and without lotion gets harder every year.
This came out a while ago but is being largely ignored by the COVID-19 alarmists. One thing I still see daily is that doors are still being propped open to prevent touching (and usually in open violation of fire code in many instances).
As I said before, a lot of what is being done now is to give businesses the APPEARANCE of sterility and not the actuality of it. Gloves that are dirtier than hands ever were. Doors propped open for no reason. Condiments left off of restaurant tables.
I’m with Mr. JimB. Get a Pro maybe even complete replacement. Garage doors seem to have a mind of their own.
Lynn, your statement yesterday about backing “renewable” energy sources with gas turbines is not quite accurate. You could greatly overbuild your renewable sources and store the excess for use when the sun goes down. There’s pumped storage* and there’s giant banks of lithium batteries**. See? The woke Greens are right! There’s no need for fossil fuels!
* ought to work great in Texas in the Summer
** pronounced “ecological disaster”
@SteveF, you are totally correct. Since Texas is water short, other than sea water, conventional pumped storage of pumping water up a hill in the night and letting it run back down during the day through hydraulic turbines just won’t work very well. In fact, Texas does have about four ??? hydroelectric dams that run 3o to 70% a year to produce 200 MW. Our peak load is 74,000 MW so those are a little short.
However, one can compress air during the night, store it in a salt dome, and let it run turbines during the day. The only problem is that the compressed air has to be significantly heated, otherwise the water in the air will freeze and plug the valves, etc due to the Joule-Thompson effect. That heating is most efficiently handled by combusting natural gas or, hydrogen. I am not sure how many salt dome formations there are for use in Texas but several are already in usage for storing natural gas.
The biggest battery storage plant in the world is 185 MHh, built by Tesla in Australia. Gonna need a couple of thousand of these or so as Texas uses about a million MWh per day for the peak days.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hornsdale_Power_Reserve
A Texas University professor has calculated the ability to convert Texas to 100% hydrogen and nuclear. Currently, about 4 or 5% of the power in Texas comes from four nuclear power plants that were built in the 1970s and 1980s at horrendous costs. “Making Texas Green”
“It is Technically Possible to Run the State’s Electrical Grid Using Wind, Solar, and Nuclear Power, but it will Require a lot of Energy Storage.”
https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/memagazineselect/article/141/03/38/366568/Making-Texas-GreenIt-is-Technically-Possible-to
“While Texas is best known for its petroleum and gas, it is also rich in potential solar and wind power resources. According to the American Wind Energy Association, the state is first in the nation in installed wind power capacity, with 23,421 MW from 12,793 wind turbines that are now ubiquitous in the Texas landscape. This generates 62.2 TWh of electricity per year, or 17.4 percent of the power on the state’s electric grid. The technically achievable wind power potential stands at a staggering 1,347,992 MW.”
“The potential for solar power in Texas is also enormous. In 2017, the solar farms in the state generated 2,119 GWh of electricity; according to a 2016 report from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Texas has more than 20,400,000 MW of potential utility-scale solar power, which could generate as much as 41,300 TWh per year.”
“Our hourly simulations of the demand and supply showed that, for the complete elimination of coal from the electric power production mix, the electric utilities will need to add 22,130 MW (rated) wind power and 9,320 MW (rated) PV capacity. In addition, approximately 45,800 m3 of hydrogen storage capacity is needed to be developed in order to store an annual maximum of approximately 700 Mmol H2 (equivalent to 46 GWh of electricity) at the maximum pressure 500 bar. That storage volume, 45,800 m3, is equal to about 1.6 million cubic feet, which is a rounding error compared to the 853,043 million cubic feet of natural gas storage in Texas, as reported by the Energy Information Administration.”
The cost, according to my faulty memory, is only around $4 trillion or so to convert from coal and natural gas to wind, solar, and hydrogen. We would convert all of the existing natural gas facilities and pipelines to hydrogen. All of the existing vapor based combustion devices can easily convert from natural gas to hydrogen.
One small problem is that hydrogen wants to be free. It is the smallest molecule and can easily slip between other molecules. So all hydrogen storage, pipelines, and combustion devices need to be very well vented. Extremely well vented. Do not park your hydrogen fueled car in the garage. Your furnace in the attic will better venting also. All storage devices will need to checked and coated for hydrogen embrittlement also.
Got $4 trillion for Texas to convert to hydrogen ? Got $40 trillion to convert the USA to hydrogen ?
I have this misplaced fear of burglaries. I would rather confront a robber and have a chance of preventing my loss. I know that is a bad idea. In addition to possible harm to me, I would probably be convicted of some violence toward the scum.
Move to Texas ?
Garage doors are something I call a pro to deal with. One of the spring-connected cables in my opener broke one night, and it sounded like a gun went off in my garage.
Me too. The carpenters just finished widening the frame on my single bay garage door (I have a double bay and a single bay garage) from 8 ft to 10 ft this morning. The garage door guy is installing a 10 ft wide by 7 ft tall garage door right now. There is no way I would do that myself. Too old and winding that massive spring up is unnerving.
This is trivial for ProgLibTurds like Shot Girl ™. Under her administration we will all be working just “for the joy of working”. Just like in the Star Trek Universe, where SG currently lives.
Be aware of scammers pretending to be COVID-19 contact tracers. Legitimate contact tracers will never ask for your Medicare Number or financial information. If someone calls and asks for personal information, like your Medicare Number, hang up and report it to us at 1-800-MEDICARE.
Good night ! The scammers are going to be the death of us.
Lynn
easily converting form NG to H2? H2 is a bitch, seals, even odor for home facilities, maybe, and it is a big maybe, industrial installations that doesnt need odor, and, how do you plan to generate H2?
H2 is a no way solution, I rememember time ago the greens and vehicles,until someone said, how do you plan to install a network and fill those everyday? NG is easier, there are a lot of pipelines and distribution systems, like electrical, and this is the touch of glory for EV, you dont need to build distribution links, but H2?
YMMV
Lynn
easily converting form NG to H2? H2 is a bitch, seals, even odor for home facilities, maybe, and it is a big maybe, industrial installations that doesnt need odor, and, how do you plan to generate H2?
H2 is a no way solution, I rememember time ago the greens and vehicles,until someone said, how do you plan to install a network and fill those everyday? NG is easier, there are a lot of pipelines and distribution systems, like electrical, and this is the touch of glory for EV, you dont need to build distribution links, but H2?
YMMV
I guess that my sarcasm on the conversion of Texas from coal and natural gas to wind, solar, and hydrogen does not come through very well. Just the cost of $4 trillion dollars for Texas alone takes my breath away. $40 trillion dollars for the entire USA is simply amazing.
The hydrogen will be generated by electrolysis from very clean demineralized water (cost of $10/gallon) from the wind turbines at night time. Our current industrial experience of electrolyzer equipment is not good and requiring excessive maintenance.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrolysis_of_water
And as you mention, the distribution and storage of hydrogen is problematic. I envision a lot of fires. Many, many fires, especially in people’s homes using improperly maintained equipment.
Hydrogen is no problem! Just tap those abundant hydrogen wells which can be found everywhere!
/sarc
Unless we can send tankers to Jupiter or Saturn, hydrogen is a storage mechanism, not an energy source. And not a particularly good one.
IIRC, creating H2 from CH4 also creates 1 CO2 molecule per CH4. Is the CO2 sold to AOC to keep US green?
IIRC, creating H2 from CH4 also creates 1 CO2 molecule per CH4. Is the CO2 sold to AOC to keep US green?
Oh no, creating hydrogen from methane will be outlawed. Even if that is where 98+% of the hydrogen is now created using steam reformers.
We will create hydrogen from electrolyzing water. Very very pure water as the water impurities tend to collect on the electrodes. Quickly.
“Be aware of scammers pretending to be COVID-19 contact tracers. Legitimate contact tracers will never ask for your Medicare Number or financial information. If someone calls and asks for personal information, like your Medicare Number, hang up and report it to us at 1-800-MEDICARE.”
Good night ! The scammers are going to be the death of us.
All of our incoming landline calls are either scammers or recruiters trying to get my wife to move back to the Portland Metro. Hmmm, on second thought, they’re all scammers.
Why keep the landline? Old school phone company employee. Plus, there is an expectation of privacy with anything going over that wire which simply is not present with either wireless service or landline through the cable provider.
Drudge had this linked today. For those of you unfamiliar with South Florida, virus or no virus, you don’t want to end up in Jackson Memorial.
https://miami.cbslocal.com/2020/08/18/frontlines-icu-nurses-jackson-memorial-hospital-covid-unit/
RE: Hydrogen
Here’s what RBT had to say about storing hydrogen (almost 6 years ago to the day… creepy – I look forward to discussing this again in August of 2026… lol):
https://www.ttgnet.com/journal/2014/08/18/monday-18-august-2014/#comment-49349
In a comment a couple of days later ech mentioned the problem of Hydrogen Embrittlement.
I’ve kept mine. Partially from habit and a little nostalgia (not to mention some local identity in knowing people with this prefix live here, people with that prefix live there – though, that’s changed a lot with the ability to port numbers anywhere). Also, when I’m giving my number to somebody who is not family or friend it’s nice to have a landline to give them. I don’t need every business I patronize having my cell number.
Just for grins I even have an old rotary phone hooked up to my land line and, shockingly, pulse dialing works.
One word about hydrogen.
BOOM!
my hs chemistry teacher used to like to ignite hydrogen just to wake everyone up.
Just for grins I even have an old rotary phone hooked up to my land line and, shockingly, pulse dialing works.
Oh, sure. To think that they used to charge for the “convenience” of touch tone while maintaining the backwards compatibility of pulse dialing got more expensive.
I’ve touched on the subject here before that the stats about the wealthy cutting landline phone service are totally bogus, especially in CA.
sorry Lynn
But we have a win win issue, nuclear plants to manufacture H2! is a win win
When you said 4 Tn, pocket money, 20% more speed to the printing machine? 10%?
last, a Landline has service quality standards on FCC as far I remember, mobile phones, no, so, I plan to keep this, at least in my country the operators try to move from POTS to fiber (no guarantee print in very small letter) or cord cutting, no way, when rolling blackouts appears, land lines are the last thing that disappears.
Here’s what RBT had to say about storing hydrogen (almost 6 years ago to the day… creepy – I look forward to discussing this again in August of 2026… lol):
https://www.ttgnet.com/journal/2014/08/18/monday-18-august-2014/#comment-49349
There are two major problems with storing hydrogen, both related to the fact that it’s a very light and very small molecule. The very small part means it’s very difficult to contain hydrogen without it leaking. The very light part means that it’s not very volume efficient. At STP, one mole of molecular hydrogen gas occupies 22.4 liters of volume, but weighs only 2 grams. There’s not all that much heat value in 2 grams of hydrogen. If you compress it to, say, 10 atmospheres (~147 psi), that 2 grams of hydrogen still occupies 2.24 liters, so it takes a pretty big pressure vessel to contain enough hydrogen to be useful.
Some of my customers are now storing hydrogen at 1,000 atmospheres using 0.1 m3 carbon fiber tanks. Scary stuff that.
Just for grins I even have an old rotary phone hooked up to my land line and, shockingly, pulse dialing works.
Do you ever use it ? We never used our house VOIP phone so I dropped it when we moved last February.
And did your kids need training to use the rotary phone ?
But we have a win win issue, nuclear plants to manufacture H2! is a win win
Using nuclear power plants to generate H2 would be a big waste of money. The latest cost is somewhere between $8 billion and $10 billion each for 1,200 MW of 95% capacity power.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watts_Bar_Nuclear_Plant
Air quality started out at level 3 this morning. Now 5. Very hazy, lots of smoke from wildfires.
One word about hydrogen.
BOOM!
my hs chemistry teacher used to like to ignite hydrogen just to wake everyone up.
Until the 1990s, all power plant generators used hydrogen for cooling at 40 to 75 psig. New generators up to 200 ??? 400 ??? MW use air for cooling now. The hydrogen cuts windage losses (the rotor moving at 3600 rpm in it) and is the best conductor of heat of all the vapors.
We had a steam turbine throw a low pressure turbine blade one fine day in 1987. The resulting imbalance blew the generator hydrogen seals and all the hydrogen rushed out, causing a fire. The hydrogen fire caused the lubricating oil system to catch on fire next. And the DC backup oil pump sensed the low system pressure and fed the fire with lubricating oil for six hours from the 10,000+ gallon tank. I got sent out the next day to take a look, it was an impressive press. About $20 million in damage if I remember correctly.
https://www.upi.com/Archives/1987/02/17/An-electrical-power-plant-disabled-by-an-explosion-and/1253540536400/
I have been trying to post something and have not been able to. Repeatedly. I am posting this just to see if it was due to the contents of the post.
When I hit post with that comment the browser acts very weirdly. It actually refreshes the screen and leaves me at the top this page…
Yep, I have not been barred from posting. It is just the wording that is killing that particular post. 🙂
Yes!!! We can use the solar energy fields to produce H2 by electrolyzing H2O. Then combine the H2 and O2 in a fuel cell to produce electricity after dark. As Confucious say: “What goes around comes around”.
This is a tweaked post that is not getting accepted. This is for my entertainment. I like troubleshooting. 🙂
_______________________________________________________________
And now for your delegated inquirer into MS stuff an article pointed by OSNews:
(link may be the issue)
I went there because I was interested in getting approved Intel drivers (and AMD and Nvidia and…) directly from MS instead of getting them from Intel. I can now uninstall my Intel update “service” and will have the option of getting them from MS after the drivers are vetted with through them.
The feature comes with the latest update in August to 2004 -which I was on- but also requires the following I had to install today:
(The knowledgebase entry reference which could be the other issue)
Funny implementation. There is no option of getting driver updates exposed in settings and if no drivers are available you do not get a notification. By running the specific command mentioned in the article it actually told me that I do not have optional updates available.
Nevertheless, I am posting this not because of this feature but because in that article there is a mention -and a link- on how to stop updates altogether using the registry. I did not follow that link because I want the updates from MS but I have the feeling that some people here would like to investigate the Registry option. 🙂
____________________________________________________________
Final change is by running the text thru Notepad to make sure no funny characters are imbedded.
@Marcelo
Your last four comments that were blocked were blocked by Akismet as ‘spam’. Akismet is widely used, and they have a database of spammy comments and spam-comment-patterns that they use to determine if a comment is spammy.
Since I (or anyone other than Akismet) don’t know exactly what will trigger Akismet block, hard to say what text in your comment caused Akismet to block your comment. But it’s been pretty reliable on all of the sites that I use – and it’s very widely used.
Yes!!! We can use the solar energy fields to produce H2 by electrolyzing H2O. Then combine the H2 and O2 in a fuel cell to produce electricity after dark. As Confucious say: “What goes around comes around”.
And you can run H2 in just about any old spark ignition combustion engine with some modifications. I am not sure about diesels though. The nice thing is that you do not need an oxygen generator like the fuel cell needs. So that reduces the cost significantly. And allows reuse of current engines.
Of course, there will be no hydrogen in the field after it causes all of the natural gas pipelines to crack from hydrogen embrittlement and vent.
“FBI Lawyer Pleads Guilty To Altering FISA Warrant Could Face Up To Six Month Prison Sentence. You Would Never Get This Deal.”
https://saraacarter.com/fbi-lawyer-pleads-guilty-to-altering-fisa-warrant-could-face-up-to-six-month-prison-sentence-you-would-never-get-this-deal/
“The FBI lawyer who admitted to altering the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant that allowed the bureau to spy on Trump campaign advisor Carter Page, pleaded guilty Wednesday to a federal judge and will be sentenced to up to six months or less in prison in early December.”
The swamp protects its own. “Time Served ! Crack !”.
If this were real life, they would go after Clinesmith for outing a CIA asset, Carter Page. That has some serious federal jail time. Carter Page is lucky the Russians did not off him.
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
“Operation Legend: More than 200 charged with federal crimes, 1,000 arrested, AG Barr announces
The operation is named for LeGend Taliferro, 4, who was shot and killed while he slept in June”
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/doj-operation-legend-barr-200-federal-crimes-1000-arrests
From the pictures and video that I have seen, about 100,000 more rioters to be arrested.
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
@Rick. It is not the contents, it is the link in my post as I suspected.
The original article that contains the link I was using is found at:
https://www.osnews.com/story/132224/windows-10-now-allows-you-to-get-optional-and-driver-updates/
BTW. Many thanks for always being so responsive to issues we come across!
BTW2. I have no problems with askimet being used. I was just curious to see what the trigger was. I also seem to recall that when I had a previous issue I received a spam message via the browser. In any case, the behaviour in this case was different. I am happy with things as they stand.
BTW3: apologies for the tweaked post that was not correctly edited for grammar mistakes in the end. Troubleshooting is much more fun than grammar checking. 🙂
Regarding rust issues:
I swear by WD-40. I’ve used it on countless bolts and even a vice frozen solid. The latter took a whole lot of elapsed time. Spray, maybe scrape a bit, if on a hurry, gently tap, let it do wonders, repeat if necessary.
Regarding garage doors:
I worked on a couple of garage doors that were not closing properly. It was really scary. Those springs…
Got them working but I am not sure that I will ever attempt doing just another tension adjustment in the future.
Heh. One called today. Normally, I hang up if someone doesn’t start talking within 4 seconds of my “Hello?”. Today, the telemarketer picked up and asked “May I speak to Paul?” I just said “No.” and waited. The silence dragged on. Finally the call-center employee said “well… ok then….” and hung up. LOL Paul heard it all and is still laughing.
A lot of ours are, but not all because we use ours. I won’t even answer calls to my cell phone from any number not in my phone book. AND I won’t give people my cell phone number because once they get it, that is the number they call (or worse try to text) instead of the land line. I’m home all the time. I do not want calls on the cell phone and I don’t text or check messages on it. I won’t give the cell phone number to Facebook or Google or any company.
The only thing I use my cell phone for at home is for outgoing long distance calls.
That is the primary reason why we kept ours. Paul is in a wheelchair, and cannot transfer alone. He must have phone access in case of emergency if I am gone, and 911 still reads landline addresses. Cell service out here, while it is getting more reliable, still sometimes won’t let calls through.
That, and having the land line is the only way to get what miserable little internet speed we have from Frontier. But mainly because after Hurricane Claudette, when the cell towers were down and so was electricity, our hard-wired land-line with a non-electric phone plugged into the jack worked perfectly.
@Chad
Just for grins I even have an old rotary phone hooked up to my land line and, shockingly, pulse dialing works
We too, have our old rotary phone hooked up to our land line. Our 8 year old was annoyed that some of her friends had a phone and she didn’t. Connected the land line to the rotary to fulfill the perceived need to call friends. It wasn’t the phone she wanted, of course, but too bad. At 8 you don’t get a vote.
That, and having the land line is the only way to get what miserable little internet speed we have from Frontier. But mainly because after Hurricane Claudette, when the cell towers were down and so was electricity, our hard-wired land-line with a non-electric phone plugged into the jack worked perfectly.
We had two Cat-2 hurricanes go over our house in FL one Summer and a third which was a downgraded tropical storm. We never lost the landline phone even though the power was out after one storm for about 30 hours.
We keep a circa-1978 Princess phone plugged into the landline in our Master. When that stops working, the apocalypse is surely nigh.
Sucks about Frontier. I worked for GTE in the 90s, and, like every other phone company, management wanted to be LDDS-Worldcom. When that didn’t happen for Chuck Lee, he cut the deal to sell out to Bell Atlantic. Long term, Bell Atlantic wanted GTE’s Internet backbone and long distance but not the patchwork quilt of territories.
Frontier is essentially the old GTE minus the bits that made any money.
The merger was a bust for the GTE shareholders and bad for the employees. I made it out okay, having left before the merger was approved with my pension intact and options cashed out at the equivalent of VZ at $78, but my friends were not so lucky.
“For The First Time, Boeing Informally Renames The 737 MAX To 737-8”
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/first-time-boeing-informally-renames-737-max-737-8
“There was a notable press release from Boeing this morning for two reasons: first, the aerospace giant in announcing that Polish Enter Air had ordered two 2 737 Max aircraft, the first order for the infamous airplane this year; the second reason was perhaps more notable: as Jon Ostrower notes, for the first time Boeing officially dropped the “Max” moniker from the jet’s branding. While the aircraft family is still the Max, Boeing called the model the 737-8 for the first time in a deal an announcement.”
“It appears that Boeing has finally realized that nobody would voluntarily fly in a 737 MAX. As to whether anyone will fly in a “737-8” despite Boeing’s own admission that “This Plane Was Designed By Clowns, Who Are Supervised By Monkeys”, it remains to be seen.”
I still do not want to fly in one. In fact, I do not want to fly in a plane at all right now.
I have family flying almost every week right now though.
You can get this deal if you roll over on your former masters and completely cooperate with the prosecution.
well Lynn, who knows what happen with costs in 50/60 years, nobody (well except our late host in an exchange of mails circa 2000) said Us was going to be net exporter of oil.
As I saw gas plants on desalinization projects, a complete nonsense, everything is possible
Regarding land lines, we of course keep ours because we have DSL. Dry DSL is sometimes problematic with some local exchange carriers, so I keep the voice part. I agree with others here that it has been pretty reliable over the years. We have had blanket cellular outages a couple of times, caused by a cut buried fiber bundle. That also took out the land lines. We never had that happen when the land lines went over microwave transmission to and from our valley. As an engineer who worked designing mil communications hardware, it seems to me that reliability is not important enough any more. The old land line is still, as has been said, the last to go down. Too bad they are being ripped out almost everywhere.
I answer our phone with a few seconds pause. That seems to defeat a lot of spammers. Our friends are trained to begin speaking as soon as they hear us pick up.
For those who want a “throwaway” phone number that works, consider Google Voice. I know, it is THAT company, but it is pretty good, and free, with free long distance anywhere in the US. You can get several numbers, and they can be any area code. If I have to give out a phone number to a suspected bad operator, I use the GV number. I have it set to NOT ring anywhere, but if someone leaves me a voice message, I get it transcribed as an email. I can return the call if I want to using any phone. They can spam it into oblivion, and I am not bothered. I could also just dump the number and get another. There are other uses. DON’T port any cell number to GV unless you really want to. There are valid reasons for this, but you will have to decide. This virtual telephone service (used to be Grand Central) is very flexible. Of course, there are others, but all I know of $cost.
My original interest in GV was this powerful feature: if you set it up properly, you only have to give out one number to all your contacts. You can have up to (I always forget) something like six numbers ring on an incoming call. The first one you answer takes the call. This is great for businesses. In fact, there are pricey services just for businesses. I’ll bet Lynn has something like that. GV just happens to be free. Not private, but then what is? My interest waned when I found myself using the phone less and less. We still know a few folks who are only reachable by phone.
My original interest in GV was this powerful feature: if you set it up properly, you only have to give out one number to all your contacts. You can have up to (I always forget) something like six numbers ring on an incoming call. The first one you answer takes the call. This is great for businesses. In fact, there are pricey services just for businesses. I’ll bet Lynn has something like that. GV just happens to be free. Not private, but then what is? My interest waned when I found myself using the phone less and less. We still know a few folks who are only reachable by phone.
My business has five hard lines connected to our local phone switch ( CO ? ) using a 25 pair cable. If the first line is busy, the call automatically rolls to the second line. If the second line is busy, the call rolls over to the third line. And the fourth line. And the fifth line.
We have a Panasonic PBX (private branch exchange) switch that supports up to eight incoming / outgoing lines and up to 32 inside phone lines. We also have a auto-attendant / voice mail switch that tells you to press 2 for support, 3 for sales, 4 for the list of extensions, or 0 for the operator.
We also have two DSL lines on that 25 pair cable and my warehouse tenant has a DSL line and hard phone line also. Many of the pairs are dead now since the backhoe incident while digging a new water well in 2013. The AT&T dude did a good job reconnecting the cable but that was a freaking disaster. Hint: when digging with a backhoe, call for the marking service first. Or, look at the 25 pair cable going into the ground just 20 foot away from the bucket you moron.
Nor at 13. The Brat started to want a phone of her own — a smart phone, not just a cordless house phone in her room or even a flip phone to carry — at about 11, when one or two friends got them. The asking, by which I mean nagging, stepped up last year when “all” of her friends had them, an assertion easily disproved by talking to some of the parents of her classmates, whose daughters also claimed that all of their friends and classmates had their own phones.*
I’m not in principle opposed to her having a phone, or at least being the primary carrier of my phone. However, she doesn’t need one and has access to a variety of phones, tablets, and computers pretty much any time except in school and in bed, and I’m resistant to even appearing to give in to nagging.
—
* I was already familiar with this tactic, not from my sons but from my wife and her friends, all from Commie Shitholeland. I’d see my wife yelling at Son#1 about some perceived deficiency, saying “Look at Tao. He always does his homework and practices piano whenever his mother tells him to and never talks back.” Fifteen minutes later I might see Tao’s mother yelling at him. “Look at Jin. He’s always obedient and does his homework as soon as he comes home from school and never talks back to his mother.” And Jin’s mother yelling at him… I don’t know whether this is a product of Chinese culture or of Communist upbringing. Don’t much care, either. It’s offensive and abusive.
I’ve also seen a bunch of Chinese mothers — always the mothers, never the fathers — gathered in a ring around a teenager, browbeating and not letting the kid get a word in. Nice use of the struggle session, you commie assholes.
I wasn’t always able to break up the abuse, such as by maneuvering a broom or mop through the abuse session — “Oops, pardon me. Tao, can you help me with the mop bucket? Thanks.” — but at the least I’d go talk to the kid afterward. Some of them knew the score about their parents’ commie asshole upbringing. They didn’t like being the focus of the abuse session but they knew what was going on. Others didn’t know, and were in or near tears. Good parenting, you assholes.
There’s a reason a lot of the teen and preteen kids of my wife’s Chinese friends or fellow church members came to me with questions or for advice. Unlike any other adult they knew, I’d answer questions honestly to the best of my ability — what a shock! — though sometimes I’d tell them that the joke they asked about was a rude sex joke and are they really sure they want an explanation? And I didn’t judge the kids harshly for failing to meet an impossible standard — what a shock! — and just gave suggestions for organizing time better and such. Or in a couple cases told them “A year and a half before you move out and go to college. You can do it.”
“It appears that Boeing has finally realized that nobody would voluntarily fly in a 737 MAX. As to whether anyone will fly in a “737-8” despite Boeing’s own admission that “This Plane Was Designed By Clowns, Who Are Supervised By Monkeys”, it remains to be seen.”
I still do not want to fly in one. In fact, I do not want to fly in a plane at all right now.
I wish I could remember the special reason they called the plane a 737- variant, something with the union. Making sure the plane got built in Renton was part of it.
We saw a *lot* of A220s on the tarmac at O’Scare last year. The first A220-300 delivery from Mobile took place in June, an order from Delta, who used to fly Boeing exclusively.
“It appears that Boeing has finally realized that nobody would voluntarily fly in a 737 MAX. As to whether anyone will fly in a “737-8” despite Boeing’s own admission that “This Plane Was Designed By Clowns, Who Are Supervised By Monkeys”, it remains to be seen.”
I still do not want to fly in one. In fact, I do not want to fly in a plane at all right now.
I wish I could remember the special reason they called the plane a 737- variant, something with the union. Making sure the plane got built in Renton was part of it.
So that Southwest Airlines would not have to retrain their pilots and their mechanics. But just about the only common thing between the old 737 and the 737 MAX is the landing gear.
CDC – Weekly number of deaths (from all causes) in the USA
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/excess_deaths.htm
There is a significant upwards movement over the rolling average starting the week of March 28, 2020 with 63193 deaths. The peak is the week of April 11, 2020 with 79,375 deaths. The trend has significantly dropped since then.
I am not sure what the “weighted” means. Weighted to me means that these are not actual death numbers and somebody has massaged them.
ding-ding-ding!
Though the massaging might be benign, such as adjusting for the change in national population from year to year.
somebody has massaged them
ding-ding-ding!
Though the massaging might be benign, such as adjusting for the change in national population from year to year.
So, these are not the ACTUAL number of deaths as the CDC graph implies. So, the graph is worthless.
I think that, if you want to understand the death chart referenced above, you need to look at all of the explanations of how the various values were determined, and the methodology therein.
Rather than ‘jumping to confusions’.
I’m not a stats guy – but I think there might be someone here who can look at this data and determine it’s accuracy and validity because they understand statistics. I’d be interested in that sort of an analysis, rather than comments that are ‘jumping to confusions’ or even conspiracy theories.
-shrug- This year’s numbers might be accurate, with previous years corrected to show population starting at the same level as this year.
Looking through some of those pages, I see that they admit to adjusting for under-reporting. No mention of adjusting for overreporting. This referred to Election Flu deaths, not excess deaths, concerning which I didn’t see any mention of adjustments.
Note that numbers shown on CDC pages do not necessarily match numbers shown on other CDC pages. In some cases the aspect being counted is slightly different between the two pages, often subtly enough that you don’t catch the difference until you side-by-side compared the descriptions a few times. In other cases I didn’t spot any difference in the descriptions but the numbers were different. I don’t know if that was left hand not knowing what the right hand was doing, copy-paste mistake in making the descriptions the same, or other glitch.
Bottom line, CDC numbers can’t be trusted but they’re all we peons have.
I am a stats guy, but it would take more time than I have available to wade through the raw data (where provided) and the explanations and come up with the tables of numbers shown, and to explain differences between pages. Despite working in medical information processing for the past two years plus a couple gigs before this, I don’t understand all of the medical, epidemiological, and mortality terms used. Making it worse, a number of terms used in the CDC pages are only one letter different than other terms with different meanings but which can fit into the same sentence. And neither term is in a word processor’s built-in dictionary. And they’re often used incorrectly, in place of each other. And there are a lot — a lot — of careless grammar or copy-paste errors in a lot of documents in the medical field, making it very difficult to work your way through them if you’re not an experienced professional who can realize that the wrong word was used and instead of this the sentence is supposed to mean that.
(Not formally but unofficially we at work often tell the recipients of our reports that we know that what we’re giving you is garbage but it’s the best we can do. The electronic health records you sent us covered only half of the practices, say, or the office notes we’re supposed to parse and extract info from have so many spelling errors and grammar mistakes that the machine learning tools give a model which is barely better than no model at all.)
TL;DR version: I can’t help you reconcile the numbers on the CDC pages with the claims in the text, the numbers or claims on other CDC pages, or anything else you’ve heard or seen with your own eyes.
So that Southwest Airlines would not have to retrain their pilots and their mechanics. But just about the only common thing between the old 737 and the 737 MAX is the landing gear.
It was more than that, something about the way the union’s contract was worded regarding Renton. The factory is living on borrowed time because the land is too valuable to keep making aircraft at that site. The union knows this, but abandoning Renton would make it easier for Boeing to leave WA State altogether, especially as the 747 program unwinds in Everett.
There is a big push on for hydrogen power and we get that up here in Canada as well. “Blue” hydrogen is hydrogen cracked from methane. If your goal in moving to hydrogen is reducing C02, you need to do something with the carbon molecules in methane. Lots of hand-waving for that (sequestration and storage, etc…), but frankly, if you don’t have a cheap and proven sequestration solution it would be cheaper just to convert vehicles to run on straight methane. Either is good news for companies pumping methane. “Green” hydrogen is hydrogen cracked from water. Needs lots of electricity, so a lot of spare solar or wind used to create hydrogen with electricity not directly used for anything else (maybe better than a battery solution), but you have to build that generating capacity. Nuclear plants will do that too and I liked Pournelle’s idea to just build a whole bunch to a standard design to get economies of scale. Not going to happen of course due to “fear of nuclear”. I would rather just use the electricity directly and batteries will get better, cheaper, and a lot larger. I don’t see hydrogen as a viable solution if the goal is de-carbonization of energy production. (In Ontario, we shuttered our few coal plants but we are also 60% nuclear and about 26% hydroelectric. The rest is gas, plus a little wind (7%) and solar (2%) backed-up by gas turbines. I think peak power for Ontario is around 33,000 MW, so big, but not Texas big).
@Greg Norton
“Nice USA-made shovel? I’m sad we left ours in FL when we departed in 2010. I never thought that I would be unable to buy another one like it.”
I haven’t seen a good shovel in a retail store for years but most of my shovels (I’ve had to supply small crews) are True Temper round point solid shank with wood handle, similar to this one for $70.20 at
https://www.amazon.com/Ames-True-Temper-Round-Shovel/dp/B0007LTPO4?tag=ttgnet-20
[Ames and True Temper have maybe merged?]
Also at Amazon
Jackson 1201900 J-450 Pony $63.68 (part of Ames USA)
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=solid+shank+shovel&hvadid=78202834387203&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvqmt=e&ref=pd_sl_778nct80kq_e&tag=ttgnet-20
and
Red Rooster 10001RCB Irrigation Clip Point (with a straighter shank) $70.70 – I have one like this I got from Grainger some years ago but they don’t seem to list it anymore, I usually prefer more angle on the shank.
I bought my most recent (and my first in 1972) solid shank shovel from used sources, both for $5.00 and both in need of a new handle, so keep your eyes open.
That reminded me about something I read last week and is kind of related:
https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/6/21355674/human-genes-rename-microsoft-excel-misreading-dates
The genes were translated to dates. 🙂
In the end, the geneticists have now decided to change the names of 27 genes so far.
Excel wins! 🙂
The genes were translated to dates.
In the end, the geneticists have now decided to change the names of 27 genes so far.
Excel wins!
No, the correct order of the priorities are:
1. God.
2. BillG (random numbers)
3. Lotus 1-2-3 compatability (date ‘0’ = 1/0/1900)
4. Excel
5. Geneticists
Just checking in and I see you all have been busy….
@Marcelo your problematic comment might have triggered as spam because it reads a bit like the cut and paste spams that glom together a bunch of text from online sources. They tend to almost make sense, but have a lot of non sequiturs. At least at first scan thru on my phone with tiny text…. I’ll look into the update link when I get home to my 24 inch monitors. Thanks for fighting thru.
N
Nuclear plants will do that too and I liked Pournelle’s idea to just build a whole bunch to a standard design to get economies of scale.
Washington State Public Power System tried to do that and failed miserably. “Whoops”
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/w/whoops.asp
“Whoops is slang for the Washington Public Power Supply System (WPPSS), which in 1983 had the largest municipal bond default in history. ”
TVA and Duke both have a lot of nukes. I think that each of them have a few BWRs and a few PWRs. Too many different designs ! There should be only one design allowed. And I do not like BWRs.
Wrt dissolving rust, lots of good options listed, but for heavy rust, muriatic acid , sold as concrete cleaner. Use lots of ppe. Hard to apply in your case, I’d go for a wire brush. Maybe a wire wheel on an angle grinder.
N
(In Ontario, we shuttered our few coal plants but we are also 60% nuclear and about 26% hydroelectric. The rest is gas, plus a little wind (7%) and solar (2%) backed-up by gas turbines. I think peak power for Ontario is around 33,000 MW, so big, but not Texas big).
Total power capability for Texas is somewhere around 120,000 MW, peak power generation capability at any given moment is around 100,000 MW. Wind is around 25,000 MW but does not really crank up until 8pm or so and dies by noon. Solar is 5,000 MW but only generates power from 8 am to 5 pm in the summer, less in the winter.
The four nukes are 5,000 MW and the 14 ? 16 ? coal plants are 10,000+ MW. The 12 ? refineries and 40 ? 50 ? chemical plants in Texas all generate their own power using natural gas fired topping steam turbines or combined cycle units at 200 MW to 450 MW each. Dow Chemical in Freeport can generate 5,000 MW all by itself. The rest is all privately owned natural gas steam and gas turbine plants who sell their power through ERCOT, about 50,000 MW.
And that does not include the coal units in the Texas Panhandle who are on the Oklahoma – NM grid, and the natural gas units in Beaumont who are on the Louisiana grid. Probably another 5,000+ MW.
The weighting in the CDC graphs is explained:
The CDC is looking at the “provisional” deaths and assigning them a cause of death based on stats from the locality of the death. As I understand it, CDC has two sources of death data. The first is near real time from hospitals and other health care sources. The second is from death certificates. The first is fairly quick to come in, but has minimal information. The death certificates have the official cause of death and contributing factors. However, they can take weeks to a month or more to come in. They then can replace the provisional data as they get the official.
This is based on an explanation I read from an actuary that works in life insurance and tracks this data for her employer. I’ll try to post her next update on excess deaths when she puts it out.