Hot and humid. Yep. Again.
Didn’t see the high yesterday, but it was hot. High 90s in the shade for sure.
I took a few minutes and got a coat of Thompsons colored water seal on the teak table. I was sweating by the time I was done, despite being in the shade, and hardly exerting myself wiping the oil on…
After that I did a couple of pickups. Talked to my auctioneer and he put me off until Friday. He’s busy. Picked up a hundred 12ga rounds at one auction, and some dental tools. I intend to use the tools for working with clay not teeth 🙂 I also swung by my secondary location, and picked up some stuff. Both kids want second monitors for their school laptops. The teacher sends links to content during the video call, and there isn’t room onscreen for everything. I’ve got lots of monitors, so it was no biggie, but I’m betting most of the other kids don’t have a <s>hoarder</s> prepper for a dad. I grabbed #1 daughter a keyboard too. I didn’t have a USB port replicator or dock, since their lappys are all USB C. That’s too new for me. Once again though, backups for the win!
I also picked up a black and white laser printer for me. My HP P1005 finally stopped working. I had a pallet of old laser printers I paid $5 for some years ago. My intention was to swap printers instead of toner. I liked my P1005 though, and bought one $10 toner for it. I’ve got 2 HP lasers left. I hope the one I brought home works still. I’ll find out later today. I must have scrapped out the rest of the pile at some point. I don’t remember. I probably kept the toner carts though…
Yeah, there is a cost to keeping all the cr– , er… stuff. I get that. But it’s immensely satisfying to just grab something that will get the job done, without any drama or time used. If we were further down the slope of the collapse, I can imagine situations where what you’ve got is all you can safely get… a big chunk of the world works that way now. Thank Gnu we’re not there yet. It’s Wednesday and already I’ve pulled a couple monitors, cables, a monitor stand, a printer, keyboard, can of spray sticky, some decorative fabric, and a variety of other stuff off the pile and put them to use. That’s cool.
Speaking of cool, I received the fridge monitor someone recommended, I’ll be installing that today. Thanks for the tip. So far, touch wood, everything has been fine in the fridge zone… trust, but verify.
I also got most of my gennie parts, so that’s on the list today too.
I’ve got a vet appointment for my little guy this AM. He’s due for heartworm and some other shots, and we want to talk to the Dr about his fairly sudden hearing loss. It seems like it happened in a matter of weeks that we noticed something, and now he’s almost entirely deaf. Maybe there’s some reason besides old age, and we can help.
Grid’s up, and bodies aren’t stacked in the street. USE the time you have, and stack it high.
nick
Tyler Durden cowardice, but cue Don Meridith — the Kennedy dynasty is over. The last few air bubbles rising from the overturned Oldsmobile are breaking the surface. Shallow water, but everyone involved is too concerned about their political viability to attempt a timely rescue…
I’m hoping that’s a sign for the Bush dynasty as well.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/joe-kennedy-iii-becomes-first-kennedy-lose-race-massachusetts-ed-markey-triumphs-close
When one thing leads to another and another and…
I was doing some programming and wanted to create an install. I chose to go with WIX that actually does not update the PATH for it when you install it. Since publishing (creating an install) should not be an everyday activity for me, I did not want that permanently in my PATH. So, I did another program to add a directory to the PATH after having done a program that displays PATHS to get familiarized with the environment functions. I then, obviously, did another program to delete a directory from the path. (And eventually will have all the functions in a library…).
Along the way, I learnt that there are PATHS and there are other PATHS. One that only applies to the particular Process, one that applies to the particular User and one that applies to All the Users. But that is not all! The PATHS are also different when you issue the command under normal command.com versus the Administrator command.com.
What should be more relevant for the audience is: Have you had a look at your PATHS lately?
My normal user has a PATH that is 20 lines deep (by 80 columns). I was astonished. It is unexpectedly huuuge!
What is more, I just started looking at what is actually in there. In my environment, Oracle has quite a few entries for java and they gladly insert them all at the beginning. Intel, for the driver assist, also does the same. Those are much more important in the search for programs than the old system folders: C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS. Right?
The biggest shock, however, is that there are multiple entries with the same directory names! Not surprised that Oracle and Intel do not care but MS should just not allow that…
So, guess what, I think that I will now have to create a Windows Forms program to actually display, trim duplicates, rearrange, add and delete directories in my humble multiple PATHS without having to manually do things to have the PATHs I deserve to have. You know sane paths that also have sane priorities to look for things that I want to execute.
When one thing leads to another, and another and is a never ending story; it is called programming. 🙂
That thing you start doing to save time. Right? 🙁
And on the solar and batteries experiments news, the following link provides some information on what is happening in SA (South Australia):
http://a.msn.com/00/en-au/BB18CHVk?ocid=se
Hope that link works. Subject is: Tesla battery in South Australia expanded by 50 per cent, energy minister lauds benefits
Interesting article. The Law of Unintended Consequences strikes again…
–the promise of grid tied solar is “No batteries” to mess with or replace. Of course that means your tens of thousands of dollars of solar doesn’t work when you need it most- during a grid outage… something that continues to shock owners. The answer is “add batteries locally”. Funny that the answer to managing the grid is to “add batteries locally” and centrally. But you couldn’t decrease the incentives driving the damaging behaviour, no, that wouldn’t be good. Just encourage the payer to spend even more on changes to his system and new batteries to correct the bigger problem, that was caused by the incentives… I’m sure THAT won’t lead to more unintended consequences.
n
So, guess what, I think that I will now have to create a Windows Forms program to actually display, trim duplicates, rearrange, add and delete directories in my humble multiple PATHS without having to manually do things to have the PATHs I deserve to have. You know sane paths that also have sane priorities to look for things that I want to execute.
Windows 10 has a nice PATH editor built into the System control panel item, activated when you click on the PATH in the System or User variables.
I’m fairly OCD about keeping the PATH clean. I have a single line of Python which will dump the entries nicely formatted (dunno where that is at the moment). I use the system utilities to make any changes however.
Be really careful with the registry, even when using Microsoft APIs.
I’m sure THAT won’t lead to more unintended consequences.
I hang up on the solar pitches, but lately, they’ve been knocking on the door.
My next power related project is to replace our Nexia/ComfortLink thermostat with a “dumb” unit. I have a strong suspicion that the push by the manufacturers for smart thermostats is a trojan horse for remote control of the AC by the grid operators. Here in Texas, that would be the ERCOT circus out in Taylor.
I regret ever letting the Nexia into my house. The AC contractor and I are no longer on speaking terms, but, fortunately, there are no lack of companies to provide service around Austin.
@Marcelo:
Or Yak Shaving..
G.
My t-stat is digital but not programmable. No web interface. It won’t even switch between heating and cooling automatically. I’m home anyway, and I like a constant temp. I just leave it set at 75f most of the year.
n
Raise the pressure by reducing the diameter of the exhaust. It seems logical to assume this would raise the load on the pump.
Just the opposite, assuming this is a centrifugal pump, and not a positive displacement pump. In fact, blocking the pump’s output puts the lowest load on it. Note that this is true for almost all small centrifugal pumps. No worries.
As for reversing the direction of flow, that looks like a good idea. The clue is air still in the line, especially after purging it at the nipples.
Windows PowerShell can display the path in formatted output,
$env:path -split “;”
.mg
What you want to do is poke a hole in the line so the air can escape. Important: make the hole on the top side of the line because air is lighter and floats to the top. #FollowMeForMoreHelpfulTips
SteveF, two words: check valve. 😉
Re Nexia thermostats
I got one with the new Trane heat pump/air handler system installed last Feb. No problems with it. Sort of like the phone app that lets me see/adjust things without walking to the thermostat on the wall. And to adjust things if I ever travel again.
As for ‘forced remote control’ by anyone else, it would be easy enough to disable the wireless capabilities so that remote access is not available.
So, no complaints here.
” it would be easy enough to disable the wireless capabilities so that remote access is not available.”
–the demand tracking power meters with remote load shedding work over industrial use frequencies. You’d have to put metal around the whole thing. The t-stats all want to be on your network, which opens a number of security concerns.
n
I watched Bill & Ted Face the Music last night.
I thought it was awful. But what do I know.
I’m still not going to suffer through a movie wearing a face diaper. I’ll wait until movies are online for download. Or the face diaper mandate goes away.
–the demand tracking power meters with remote load shedding work over industrial use frequencies. You’d have to put metal around the whole thing. The t-stats all want to be on your network, which opens a number of security concerns.
My “smart meter” is at the service entrance. The main panel is about 15 feet away, in my basement. The meter can only shut down everything, so load shedding would be total. In our area, rolling blackouts are regional, handled above the substation level.
People who opt for power company control of their central AC get a device installed on the outdoor unit. Like the smart meters, it is said to be controlled over the cell network, but your mention of other frequencies makes more sense.
I don’t have any devices that want to be on my network… yet. I do have one DirecTV DVR that sometimes nags me about not being “connected,” but I ignore that. I have them connected to my landline, which for now is still allowed. Don’t do pay per view, so none of this matters to me. I was on the phone with a DTV tech a few years ago, and she asked why my DVR was not on my network. I told her it had no Ethernet jack. Long pause. She repeated the question. I said, Oh, you might mean Wi-Fi; I don’t use that in my house. And, in fact, I didn’t. That day.
I would assume that some IoT devices might work without access to the ‘net, but that does defeat some of the purpose. If I ever need this, I guess I will provide a net segment isolated from our computers. I have already mentioned that I used to have isolated (router) Windows and Linux segments, and it worked fine.
Note that my Nexia thermostat is only connected to my local/home wireless network. It is not connected to any other wireless or cell network. The phone app only connects to the t-stat via my local wireless network.
Nor are the power meters remotely controlled – although there was a movement to replace the meters with ‘drive-by reading’ types. The locals didn’t like it.
@jimB, yeah the load shedding is from the power company’s pov… customer sees a blackout.
You are typically offered a discounted rate to sign the permission slip for remote blackout of your house… don’t know if they still do that. We got a smart meter whether we wanted one or not. I just noticed it there one day. I do not think they can shut it off remotely, as there is no switchgear associated.
The FCC antenna locator will show you the power company antennas in your neighborhood. This front end makes it easy to use.
http://WWW.antennasearch.com/sitestart.asp
You can download and then filter results. It’s a fun tool. For your power company, you are looking for the ones that aren’t microwave. Those are part of the smartgrid monitoring system.
n
added- there is a similar front end for ham radio records too.
…an interesting bit of fiction by Janet Kagan regarding the impact of copyright against creativity of future generations. Her story was between a writer who advocated for a shorter copyright and a senator (?) who was set to cast an important vote to greatly extend copyright duration.
I don’t recall a Janet Kagan story along those lines (thanks for the reminder – it is about time I re-read Hellspark and Mirabile again), but Spider Robinson had a story that fits: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melancholy_Elephants
http://www.spiderrobinson.com/melancholyelephants.html
Thank you both for that ! That story made my day !
Over The Hedge: surviving without humans
https://www.gocomics.com/overthehedge/2020/09/02
Verne will do fine. RJ will die of twinkie withdrawal. As mentioned by the lone survivor of the world wide apocalypse in the documentary “The Umbrella Academy”, Twinkies do not last forever.
The FCC antenna locator will show you the power company antennas in your neighborhood. This front end makes it easy to use.
http://WWW.antennasearch.com/sitestart.asp
You can download and then filter results. It’s a fun tool. For your power company, you are looking for the ones that aren’t microwave. Those are part of the smartgrid monitoring system.
Not fun. The first thing that happens is an error message that it can’t load Google Maps properly. At that point, I can see the map, but it is dark gray, and hard to read. When I do anything, the map disappears, leaving just the towers or antennas.. Tried it on Linux and Android, using Chromium and Brave browsers, with exactly same results. I will play more, because this is a good idea, but have to stop right now.
Re: antenna map
I also got the error about the map not loading, but it did (in a new popup window; maybe an iframe?). And it was visible. And Ctrl+scroll-button zoomed in and out. Clicking on an icon brought up an info box.
This is on latest FireFox (version 80.0) with uBlock Origin ad blocker active.
The problem with the map (according to error messages in the developer’s console) is that they are using an unsupported (perhaps disabled) version of the Google Map API. Console messages:
Dilbert: Becoming Golem
https://dilbert.com/strip/2020-09-02
I used to work with a guy who had almost completed his transformation to Golem. He would arrive at work at 630am and start the day’s analysis for us of the 125 power plants that we were responsible for. Every day for lunch, he would eat his sandwich that he brought from home and clean his hand built 1911 in his office. After work, he would stop by his local gun range and fire off 50 or so rounds and then go home.
Lest we forget, hurricane recovery is ongoing for the people that were affected.
@jimB, that map error seems to happen whenever google changes their API authorizations. Lots of small developers get stuck then.
I get the error, but the map loads greyed, all the functions work. The D/L will get something you can take into excel and sort/filter.
I used it when people were complaining about antennas. SO, which of these 431 antennas are you not fine with?
I also use it to look up antennas that catch my eye when I’m out and about.
n
And aye yi yi to the story of the idiot junior engineer. Bet the air turned blue on that escapade.
Congrats on your well. Regulators gotta regulate.
Nope, my boss and plant manager never said a word to me. And I did much worse things while I worked there for three years. Even so, they were sorry to see me go as I always finished my projects and fixed the things that I broke.
Our 125 power plants were hotrods. We always ran them 5% over pressure and up against the wall to make whatever power we needed. The equivalent would be driving a 1968 Camaro 327 down the road at 120 mph for hours on end. We kept lots of spare parts for our base load units, ten million dollar pumps and steam turbines, generators, etc. We broke them all the time and kept well over 6,000 maintenance personnel across the plants for putting them back together in the spring and the fall. We took our obligation to serve seriously and would do whatever we had too to meet our customer’s electricity needs. Out of our annual income of over four billion dollars, we spent $2.2 to $2.4 billion of that income on fuel for our hot rods. New parts was a distant third in our spending.
Thanks ! I was sweating the water well permit. If I had to close the well and pour cement down the casing, I would have to buy a 10,000 gallon water tank and have a 8,000 gallon potable water truck come by every week to top it off.
And the water aquifer below us has dropped over 100 feet in elevation over the last decade. It is 100 foot to 2,200 foot below us under five counties. It is about the size of Lake Ontario. My parents live 100 miles down the coast and their aquifer has turned salty. They are getting ready to install a salt water treatment plant for fresh water.
https://www.lonestargcd.org/aquifers
Considering how quiet the bands are, this is a crazy number of hams in my zipcode
https://haminfo.tetranz.com/map/z/77080
n
I used to work with a guy who had almost completed his transformation to Golem. He would arrive at work at 630am and start the day’s analysis for us of the 125 power plants that we were responsible for. Every day for lunch, he would eat his sandwich that he brought from home and clean his hand built 1911 in his office. After work, he would stop by his local gun range and fire off 50 or so rounds and then go home.
By Scott Adams’ definition, I’ve been Golem since 3-4 months into this job.
The project manager in Virginia no longer thinks I’m kidding when I say that I won’t be around for the next phase in 2021. He witnessed the meltdown of our group’s longest tenured senior developer pitching in with a demo we working on in New York this week.
I was only supposed to be “helping” at the demo in New York.
Helping. Yeah, right.
US Customs found $30M– um $29M, no sorry, $28M *cough*, $27M dollars in cash…
n
I’ve got a vet appointment for my little guy this AM. He’s due for heartworm and some other shots, and we want to talk to the Dr about his fairly sudden hearing loss. It seems like it happened in a matter of weeks that we noticed something, and now he’s almost entirely deaf. Maybe there’s some reason besides old age, and we can help.
Our beloved cocker spaniel Lady went deaf sometime during her 14th year. Just happened but I suspect we just did not notice the progression as she went from hearing a mouse squeak at 100 yards to nothing at all. At least she did not go blind also.
@Nick:
We don’t have this in UK. Or if we do, I’ve not been able to find it. A ham’s details (I am G8KBZ) are a matter of record, but not of public record, especially if the ham in question is “Particulars Withheld” in the RSGB Callbook (as I am) . The Callbook is a published book, and may be bought over the counter.
I don’t think the Callbook is online, although I may very well be wrong in that belief.
edit: Non-official source at https://www.essexham.co.uk/callsign, which has me, but with no street address and an egregiously wrong lat/long. This is as it should be – the whole point of “particulars withheld” is to keep my details away from the hoi-polloi.
G.
The project manager in Virginia no longer thinks I’m kidding when I say that I won’t be around for the next phase in 2021. He witnessed the meltdown of our group’s longest tenured senior developer pitching in with a demo we working on in New York this week.
I was only supposed to be “helping” at the demo in New York.
Helping. Yeah, right.
Why don’t they promote you to senior developer ?
“Antifa ‘commander’ with flamethrower dropped to fetal position and began crying during arrest, cop says”
https://www.bizpacreview.com/2020/09/02/antifa-commander-with-flamethrower-dropped-to-fetal-position-and-began-crying-during-arrest-967423
“A known “violent” Antifa leader in Wisconsin allegedly burst into tears when confronted by police as he was headed to a Black Lives Matter rally with incendiary devices.”
“Matthew Banta was reportedly carrying an Antifa flag and various items such as a flamethrower, smoke grenades and fireworks on the way to the demonstration in Green Bay on Saturday. Known as “Commander Red,” Banta apparently “dropped into the fetal position and began crying” when stopped by police, according to WBAY.”
OK, this person is seriously mentally ill. Of course, all of the rioters appear to be mentally ill to me. He needs to go to a federal prison for a decade or so for carrying a class III device in a riot.
In the new regime running the USA if these people win, he will be running the torture XXXXXXX education section of the re-education camps.
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
@Lynn:
Trouble is, all the Antifa apologists, and they are legion, will treat him as a martyr.
Note: I am not among that legion. As far as I’m concerned, they should throw him in the chokey, and lose the keys.
G.
Why don’t they promote you to senior developer ?
Current excuse is Covid, but the real reason goes back to the humiliation trip they laid on me during the interview process to see how badly I wanted out of CGI. Management is loathe to backtrack on their rationalization for what I get paid because it would mean admitting a mistake was made.
Basically, testosterone. My manager’s manager is killing himself covering for the Seniors so he wouldn’t have to admit he was wrong. He’s got problems.
I could live without the title, but the money difference is significant, $20k minimum. I learned the numbers thanks to a mistake made by a bottom-feeder head hunter posting on Indeed for a job that was obviously in our group.
The three professional jobs I’ve held since turning 40 were all humiliation trips of some kind, taking advantage of my age in a tight labor market. I’m not going to just walk again — when I did that in Seattle, the investors immediately fired the recruiter and eventually walked the CEO to the door over the potential liability involved with how I was treated, but it still wasn’t fun to experience co-workers disgust … and envy.
“Antifa ‘commander’ with flamethrower dropped to fetal position and began crying during arrest, cop says”
Trouble is, all the Antifa apologists, and they are legion, will treat him as a martyr.
Note: I am not among that legion. As far as I’m concerned, they should throw him in the chokey, and lose the keys.
They all need to go to jail. We have video. The feddies are arresting rioters right, left, and sideways using their facial recognition technology.
“Renters in U.S. cannot be evicted through the end of the year due to coronavirus, CDC order states”
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/cdc-issues-nationwide-eviction-ban-through-the-end-of-the-year-in-an-effort-to-control-coronavirus-2020-09-01
“Unpublished order provides declaration for renters to sign stating they are unable to pay rent, have sought government assistance”
Wow, the CDC has a lot more power than I thought they did. I wonder what happens if the landlord goes broke ?
I just noticed two large bumps on my car battery. I had them tested and one came back positive. I hope its not terminal.
People seem to be too short-sighted to realize that rent goes to landlords who turn around and spend most of it paying a mortgage and property taxes on that property. Freezing evictions is useless unless you also freeze foreclosures and tax liens. That’s not to mention that without rental income what budget are landlords suppose to have for fixing anything? That won’t stop non-paying renters from filing grievances about a lack of maintenance.
I don’t get how it helps anyone. Unless the government is going to pay the back rent how do they seriously expect an unemployed/underemployed tenant who, for example, stopped making their $700 rent payments in April and, if this is a thing, doesn’t make any through the end of the year to magically come up with $6300 on January 1st? What a clusterfuck.
“Antifa ‘commander’ with flamethrower dropped to fetal position and began crying during arrest, cop says”
Was it one of the flamethrowers made by The Real Life Tony Stark (TM) as a promotion for The Boring Company a few years ago?
Or an XM42?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PKA0TzBapY
“Apparently, I’m not the only guy in town who has wanted a flame thrower for a while”
He doesn’t strike me as Antifa, though. More like someone who grew up in my generation watching the HBO comedy specials in the 80s at an impressionable age. Cue George Carlin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4nknAzQPHE
@Greg
flamethrowers made by The Real Life Tony Stark (TM)
A friend brought one of these to our chili feed / winter solstice party a few years ago. Great fun. We throw pretty good parties.
Sorry, Lynn, but I had to downvote you for that appalling joke.
I just noticed two large bumps on my car battery. I had them tested and one came back positive. I hope its not terminal.
GROAN!
Considering how quiet the bands are, this is a crazy number of hams in my zipcode
https://haminfo.tetranz.com/map/z/77080
There is an unexpectedly large number in 70121 also.
Well, I’ve documented my situation here over the last several months. Luckily my roommate was ruled to be a “guest” not a “tenant” by a judge and I was able to get rid of her.** The key was that I never accepted a penny from her for rent and she did almost nothing around the house that could be considered as some form of compensation (when asked by the judge she said she did the vacuuming).
A friend in the finance industry has told me that these orders are also applying to mortgages. He said that if some pending legislation goes through they might stop writing mortgages in Massachusetts. I doubt that, but they might become a lot pickier about who they lend money to.
Also landlords are beginning to require a lot more rent money up front and also getting picky about who they rent to.
**Most of her stuff is still at my house. The judgement says she has to take it on September 6th between 1-5pm. A police detail has been arranged.
Stretch was caught in a salon without a mask. You probably read or saw that. She’s on the tube/net today squawking “This was a setup” and “The salon owes *me* and apology.”
What kind of bizarro world does she live in? It was SF her home city, which, has locked down salons for months and she doesn’t know it.
What a turd Commie bastard.
“flamethrowers made by The Real Life Tony Stark (TM)”
A friend brought one of these to our chili feed / winter solstice party a few years ago. Great fun. We throw pretty good parties.
I wanted an XM42 when the Kickstarter hit, but we were seriously broke at the time living in Vantucky.
I’m not a big gun person. It really was too much George Carlin and “Grand Theft Auto 3”.
My parents worried about Carlins bad words. Worry more about his “good ideas”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjjPlEW9bRM
The flamethrower wouldn’t rate as the strangest thing I own, however. Some things did survive the fire sale of my toys on EBay/Amazon when we needed rent in the Northwest.
Not me. I gave it an Up and a Smiley.
Made /me/ laugh.
Stretch was caught in a salon without a mask. You probably read or saw that. She’s on the tube/net today squawking “This was a setup” and “The salon owes *me* and apology.”
What kind of bizarro world does she live in? It was SF her home city, which, has locked down salons for months and she doesn’t know it.
What a turd Commie bastard.
Hey, Pelosi just follows the old rule that some people are more special than other people.
Here is the Fox News article for Pelosi and her special salon day:
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pelosi-san-francisco-hair-salon-owner-calls-it-slap-in-the-face
The flamethrower wouldn’t rate as the strangest thing I own, however. Some things did survive the fire sale of my toys on EBay/Amazon when we needed rent in the Northwest.
Be careful crossing state lines with that flamethrower if you are going to a riot. That flamethrower just became a Class III device and a federal felony.
https://thepostmillennial.com/portlands-riot-kitchen-arrested-in-kenosha-wisc-while-filling-large-gas-canisters
My son says that the arresting officers are ATF and having the time of their lives. Instead of having to hassle legit gun dealers, they are arresting legitimate terrorists with class III weapons on hand crossing a state line. No wonder they were busting out the vehicle windows to get to the terrorists quickly. Now they get to go back to Virginia and tell stories about risking their lives against terrorists ! The other ATF agents are probably so jealous now !
https://www.oldglorygunsandammo.com/nfa-class-iii-weapons/
“Matthew Banta was reportedly carrying an Antifa flag and various items such as a flamethrower, smoke grenades and fireworks on the way to the demonstration in Green Bay on Saturday. Known as “Commander Red,” Banta apparently “dropped into the fetal position and began crying” when stopped by police, according to WBAY.”
OK, this person is seriously mentally ill. Of course, all of the rioters appear to be mentally ill to me. He needs to go to a federal prison for a decade or so for carrying a class III device in a riot.
The idiot husband of my wife’s former associate physician in Vantucky did something really stinky as a minor candidate running for Mayor in Fredericksburg. Afterwards, despite being Texas natives, they both felt compelled to leave the state — it was that bad. My guess is that he’s hip deep in Antifa in Portland. He certainly is unhinged enough. It still angers me that we paid part of his bills for nearly three years.
The radio antenna site isn’t much use for me. I gave it my address, it seems to default to the location of City Hall. Or something in town, maybe the Post Office.
A tower “2.4 miles away” being on the other side of town and almost to Lake Buchanan is not exactly informative. I want to see about the towers I can see from my yard. Oh well, not a big deal. I’ll manage to suffer through the disappointment. 🙂
As for the electric company, they read meters remotely. I don’t know how, I think it’s over the power lines… and how that works getting the signal through the transformers is a mystery.
And if they can do /that/ why can’t they be an ISP?
Anyway, it’s nice. Once upon a time your read the meters, and mailed a check. Now they read the meters and do auto pay from the checking account. They would come visit about once a year or so to manually read the meter. Since the new meters, about once every 4 years.
My knowledge of “over the power lines” is limited to X-10 stuff.
And from House to EDC, well, each have a transformer on the pole. Nevermind that most of my X-10 stuff has stopped working…. after 30 years.
As for the electric company, they read meters remotely. I don’t know how, I think it’s over the power lines… and how that works getting the signal through the transformers is a mystery.
I have not figured this out either. I suspect that they are using some sort of wifi ???
I can attest that even the big transformers do not have direct connections. I got to crawl inside a huge three phase 138,000 volt / 345,000 autotransformer one fine hot day. All the tap setting equipment (line voltage changing) and other stuff inside that huge metal “room” was neat. Did I mention it was hot ? Normally it was full of thousands of gallons of transformer oil but we were getting ready to install it.
@paul, you can buy new x10 if you want…
Look at “powerline ethernet” which you can get as adapters for home use, but was pretty much killed at the utility level. Not only did the cable companies and telcos NOT want more ISP competition, there were going to be really bad effects on spectrum hams and others used. Other than limited – very limited – cases in home use, it was a really bad idea. Most smart meters use one of the ISM bands, or VHF on assigned frequencies to local hubs, which aggregate and forward the data. Low rate serial protocols mostly iirc.
The lack of physical access to the meters led to them not reading them often enough. Their guesses at a monthly usage could be VERY wrong leaving you with a big makeup bill when they finally got around to reading it. Of course the opposite happened too, and you got a refund or credit, but that was rare compared to the big bill.
Our gas company and water company now use remote readers, but they still need to get within a few feet of the device, so they are walking up the driveway or driving down the street in some neighborhoods.
n
Houston water uses handheld readers with a big coil, so I’m thinking something like RFID. Centerpoint used to walk up and down the street, but now just drives. The gas meter must be similar to the water, since there is no power to it. Super low power sealed batteries and zwave or zigbee would be my guess if not RFID.
n
While poking around on Facebook, I cleared out a couple of Followers. One has died, the other is in Turkey and “Bye Dude”, it’s not like he ever saw anything I posted since he has almost 4000 friends.
I dropped a few more folks. Give it a break with the “tortured” meat dogs in China, eh? And the Bible stuff. And the anti-Trump stuff with other political junk. It’s not like any of them have ever said anything to me or clicked Liked on anything I’ve posted.
So. I’m Following almost 20 people. When I click that link, it shows 2 people. Who are the rest? Googling around is a circular time flush.
Kinda bored today, just messing around. I did feed the water softener a bag of salt after I fed cat and her kittens on the porch and more cats and kittens under the feed shed and the one cat on the EDC porch. Don’t know what happened to her kitten, but it was shy, might be hiding from me. The the bird got her bucket of food. The humidity outside is “wet”, not complaining.
Just got back from my secondary location. Found more stuff that should go into the local auction. I’ve got too much for this one already.
n
Yep. But all I need is the “brain” for timer functions. My modules that actually do the switching still work. Last I looked, it seemed I had to buy a whole new system.
Powerline Ethernet for X-10? Yeah, if the X-10 controller did Ethernet and also powerline for X-10 stuff, two transformers between the buildings would not matter. Not a big deal, it would be nice to have a couple of porch lights working but I have plenty of FLASHLIGHTS, so….
Not a problem yet.
@paul:
It’s been tried, unsuccessfully. Look up BPL (broadband over powerline) or as we called it in UK, PLT (power line transmission)
AFAIK, it was abandoned because of interference – turns out power wiring is even worse for high speed data than phone lines, which are none too good, anyway.
G.
@geoff, do you use qrz.com? I’m on there in my real persona…
n
added- nope, no result for that call…
Do you ever get on a repeater linked to IRLP or Allstar? I hear guys checking in from the UK on our local repeater when it’s connected to the http://www.winsystem.org/ which is then linked all over the world with voip.
n
We took the wife’s 2019 Highlander to the Toyota dealer today to get the fuel pump replaced since they recalled them. “Toyota recalling 1.8 million vehicles because fuel pumps can fail”
https://www.foxnews.com/auto/toyota-recalling-1-8-million-fuel-pumps
and
https://www.carcomplaints.com/news/2020/toyota-fuel-pump-recall-lawsuit.shtml
So the guy called her a little while ago and said that the new fuel pump kit was missing a part and they are keeping her SUV tonight and tomorrow. Great, just great.
@nick:
No, I don’t. I attempt to maintain a relatively low profile, except for my blog (see below), and posting here, occasionally.
G.
edit: doesn’t a website URL show up? Or is it in my profile? Elucidation would be good, ta.
Also, our local repeater links to the reflector for the Alaska Morning Net, and earlier in the day, the World Wide Friendship Net. I hear checkins from all over the place there…
n
@nick:
Yeah, I can do that with DMR, which I have, but don’t currently use. Local(-ish) repeaters have IRLP and similar, but I find them annoying.
G.
Look at “powerline ethernet” which you can get as adapters for home use, but was pretty much killed at the utility level. Not only did the cable companies and telcos NOT want more ISP competition, there were going to be really bad effects on spectrum hams and others used. Other than limited – very limited – cases in home use, it was a really bad idea. Most smart meters use one of the ISM bands, or VHF on assigned frequencies to local hubs, which aggregate and forward the data. Low rate serial protocols mostly iirc.
I use ethernet over powerline in the house. Works great until you saturate it with three Rokus using it in HD. I have the first generation Netgear version at 85 mbps.
https://www.amazon.com/Netgear-85Mbps-Powerline-Network-Adapter/dp/B001AZUTCS/?tag=ttgnet-20
I replaced one of powerline adapters with just a plain old cat6 ethernet wire through the wall. Works great and now my daughter’s Roku connected via a powerline does not cut out.
BTW, smart electric meters in Texas get polled every 15 minutes. Of course, they are only transmitting about a couple hundred bytes of data. Used to be in the clear, now it is encrypted.
As for the electric company, they read meters remotely. I don’t know how, I think it’s over the power lines… and how that works getting the signal through the transformers is a mystery.
And if they can do /that/ why can’t they be an ISP?
Most power companies ran fiber on their poles over the last 20 years as GE and Siemens promised “smart” meters.
Running an ISP involves a lot of legal hassle. The #1 issue is that your employees’ internal emails and other communications such as web traffic become subject to protection from monitoring, requiring various levels of court orders to access, particularly in the 9th District. IBM gave up on running an ISP for that reason.
You’re all welcome…
https://ogdaa.blogspot.com/2020/09/snappy-dresser.html#comment-form
We’re headed to Dallas this weekend, and when I went to check Tanner Electronics Wuxu Flu hours, I was shocked to discover that they were closed permanently as of June 1.
RIP
@dkreck:
Eyebleach, stat!!!
And I’m not even American!
G.
Like claws and teeth on predators, that outfit is designed to warn you away from the crazy….
n
@geoff, urls show, don’t use any left or right arrows (greater and lessor signs) and some html code gets zapped.
straight up url should be ok though.
n
Nah, Nick. That “woman’s” outfit is more like the coloration of a monarch butterfly or a hallucinogenic toad. She’s not physically dangerous, only a threat to taste and sanity.
We’re headed to Dallas this weekend, and when I went to check Tanner Electronics Wuxu Flu hours, I was shocked to discover that they were closed permanently as of June 1.
I expect half of the businesses in the USA to be in bankruptcy by Dec 31. Mostly retail, bars, and restaurants that depend on customers visiting them. I figure that just about any restaurant that does not have a drive thru is gone.
https://nypost.com/2020/07/15/chipotle-to-hire-10000-to-staff-drive-thru-expansion/
@nick:
No, I don’t. I attempt to maintain a relatively low profile, except for my blog (see below), and posting here, occasionally.
G.
edit: doesn’t a website URL show up? Or is it in my profile? Elucidation would be good, ta.
@Geoff, I just throw the URL onto its own line. That way people know where it going rather than clicking on an unknown hyperlink.
URLs are allowed. Always a good idea to include the ‘full’ URL, including the protocol. You are limited to 3 URLs in a comment, though. More URLs usually indicates a spammer, so that is one criteria for blocking.
Comments marked as spam can be released (Hi, Jenny!) if they are valid comments.
And adding a space character after the URL when it’s at the end of the comment is a good idea to ensure that it gets ‘linkified’.
Greg: Great, thanks. Saved me doing one program for cleaning-up PATHS. It is almost exactly what I was intending to do.
BTW: You can get there from the Windows 10 Settings as well.
Funny how they still have not transitioned all the Control Panel functionality to the new Settings implementation and quite a few things in Settings rely on Control Panel stuff. You would have thought that it should have been a priority. Then again, normal users probably do not tinker with Control Panel but are more likely to tinker with Settings…
Funny how they still have not transitioned all the Control Panel functionality to the new Settings implementation and quite a few things in Settings rely on Control Panel stuff. You would have thought that it should have been a priority. Then again, normal users probably do not tinker with Control Panel but are more likely to tinker with Settings…
Windows 8 and 10 are strange mixes of interfaces. I’d say they’re still struggling to undo the damage of the CEO Ballmer era, but I think it goes further back, to when Gates had his “reading weekend” epiphany about the Internet and web interfaces. Knifing Borland by rolling the limo into Scotts Valley to hire Anders Hejlsberg and his team to build a dead end language infrastructure to use as a shiv to plant in Sun’s ribcage didn’t help.
-or maybe there’s a new lizard in residence 😉
n
Knifing Borland by rolling the limo into Scotts Valley to hire Anders Hejlsberg and his team to build a dead end language infrastructure to use as a shiv to plant in Sun’s ribcage didn’t help.
Are you dissing on C# ? I know quite a few people using C# nowadays because it is “portable”.
BTW, I ported Anders Hejlsberg’s first file, window, dialog, and collection library from Win16 Smalltalk to Win32 C++. It was incredibly organized which made it easy. I still use it in our software. Made MFC look like crap.
Automatic winter rabbit watering system update:
We have wet nipples.
I lifted the drum about 4 inches and installed a valve on the exhaust water pipe. Slightly closed the valve and ‘Hey Presto!’ – All six drinking nipples are operational. I’ll keep a close eye on the pump, and will order a couple of spares (two is one, one is none and I need a backup).
Woo hoo – and thank you very much for the input. If it isn’t pouring down rain this weekend I’ll take a short video of the rabbitry and throw it up on YouTube, if folks are interested. Couple last minor details to button it up for winter but just about there.
Odd thing yesterday, noticed I was short a chicken. Opened the hen house and one of the roosters was keeled over dead in the shavings. Not a mark on him. Hatched in late April / early May, crop was normal, was previously vigorous. No idea – he was stiff and cold and unknown CoD so into the trash bin. Kind of annoyed to lose the meal -shrug- welcome to animal husbandry. Unusual for a robust young animal to drop dead for no apparent reason. With a chicken this age and health, I’d expect an impacted crop or the other chickens mobbing him and killing him, however no signs of that with this bird. These were ‘barnyard mix’, which is a nice way of saying birds of indiscriminate breeding. So no clues to what went wrong. Rest of the flock look fine. Will hurry up and slaughter the last two roosters before they decide to deny us their tasty tasty protein too.
—
Anchorage update – The recall petition for the first assembly member was denied. Next step court.
https://mustreadalaska.com/municipal-attorney-denies-recall-petition-for-zalatel/
We should know in the next day or so whether the repeal petition for AO 2020-66 (buying four buildings for homeless shelters) is denied as well. We expect it to be denied, going through the steps is time consuming, though. It is unlikely we will get it on the ballot before the city makes the purchases. I continue to house hunt. This sucks rocks. I’m going to be really ticked if we have to move and I have to redo all the rabbitry work.
—
Unrelated note – this is a good site for women thinking about self defense
https://www.corneredcat.com/
I took a handgun retention class with her a number of years ago. Nice mix of lecture and hands on practice, fairly well done. Not as intense as a class with Ayoob (his MAG-20 is a good one), but pretty useful I thought.
Thanks, Nick. Your link to hams worked better, until I tried my zip code. The map was visible, and only went gray when I rolled over it with the cursor. However, when I typed in my zip code, which covers our whole city and unincorporated areas, I could see my location, but not my call sign. Odd. I then searched for my call sign, and it was shown correctly, but a couple miles off on the map. Strange.
Looking at towers still doesn’t work well enough to use. I could DL the data, but I would prefer the maps to work. Also, I saw a big tower that I know doesn’t exist where it is shown on the map. I also saw some other errors, so I gave up. I think it has something to do with the map rendering, not necessarily the data. Useful tool, but needs work.
@all:
I have managed to post links in comment bodies. My question relates to the (optional) website box where you are invited to link to your personal site when you identify yourself to the system.
G.
@geoff, that has to do with gravitar, I think. And it may be broken. Some people you can click on their name above the comment and you’d get a popup with their website. Didn’t work when I just tried it, so something might have changed.
Otherwise, that website box is not visible on a comment.
n