Cool. Wet. Dreary. Like yesterday.
It never got much warmer than 70F and it started in with a misty drizzle around 4pm. Generally yucky all day.
I made my pickup on the other side of town. A couple of preps this time. There were two deep cycle batteries, very cheap, in unknown condition; a commercial inverter, a couple of gallons of vegetable oil, some PPEs for chainsawing, and some other small items. I’ll get the batteries on my charger/conditioner today and see how they look. The inverter needs a good exam too, but it was priced right.
I spent much of the rest of the day fighting to get my security cam software running on linux. It LOOKED like a straightforward process, but turned out to be a big pain in my backside. Most of the story is in yesterday’s comments. Long story short, it’s currently working, and seems much more solid than the windows version. Unless you have some unusual cameras you just have to use, I’m not recommending iSpy and a roll your own approach at the moment. I saved about $1000 off the price of a commercial NVR of the same capacity, and I did get to use a mix of cams I already had, but there have been some challenges along the way. If you don’t want to mess around with it, I can recommend some ‘pro-sumer’ level gear to you.
I find that my biggest use of the cams is to look outside from my desk and see “what’s making that noise out front?” Most of my clients have expressed the same idea, they use it to look around when they see something. Breakins and other camera worthy things are thankfully rare. Checking on the pool, or which diesel truck is idling out front is much more common. Of course if there is an incident, having the video is a great help.
Today I’m home and working on the same things, plus getting youngest child going on her costume, and working on at least one of my new Halloween displays. It’s not prepping, or dealing with all the other stuff, but keeping up some normality is important, especially for the kids (and not just mine, but the ones coming to Trick or Treat too.)
These are likely to be the ‘good old times’ if even half the stuff coming down the pike gets here. On it’s face it sounds extreme- to think that we better make this special or that special, in case we don’t get the chance next time. But nothing in this world is certain, except that no one gets out alive. And we BETTER make it special, because whether from civil war, disease, economic collapse, or simple poor health or a traffic accident, we might not get another chance.
Keep stacking.
nick
At one point I got an error about my smaller win10 drive, it said that the windows partition had hibernate information in it, and I needed to open it with windows to read that data and shut down the drive. Maybe that’s your problem too.
That’s exactly the problem. I’ll try shutting down the drive instead of the entire system.
Booting into Win10 on that drive and then shutting down doesn’t clear whatever is wrong.
The upside of all this pain is that you can repeat the process for a client once you know enough of the gotchas. With Unix, you’ll never know *all* of the gotchas, but the local user group will always have someone looking for some side gigs who knows more.
I’ve been futzing with Linux since pre 1.0 Red Hat in 1995, and I still consider myself a newbie as far as sysadmin stuff goes. And just when I got comfortable with init scripts, along came Systemd.
Linux
rinse and repeat
Not as bad as Unix and the Unix gurues, but anything, recompile the kernel, and look, I was studying eons ago RSX11 M (maybe it convinced me to not try to make a career programming). Even I studied ADA a bit to peek, but, not my preferred business.
–when the riots come to your city, will your cops wade in to protect you?
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/national-guard-responds-1000s-looters-ransack-philly-2nd-night-chaos-reporter-brutalized
n
— let’s not forget our friends in NOLA… stay safe.
n
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-8885887/SpaceX-set-unleash-Starlink-Better-Beta-service-600-upfront.html
n
Whoa, currently 48F and dreary. Rain stopped though.
n
Just listened to a BBC podcast about electric power, in particular nukes. It was amusing. For instance, it was amusing to learn that the offshore wind power setup will provide more electricity than is used in Great Britain.* And the cost of the turbines is lower per MWh than that produced by nuke plants.**
There’s another thing about wind and to some extent solar power: They’re taking energy out of the environment.
Riddle me this: What is the scientific principle which tells us whether a tiny change will cause a positive feedback loop*** and thus catastrophe or the results of a change will damp out and not mean anything. I’ve looked and looked at lots of examples (increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide by 10 ppm means disaster while removing up to 3% of wind energy of the entire atmosphere is nothing to worry about) and simply can’t find a unifying principle. Maybe I’m not as bright as lobbyists, activists, and actors.
* Fact check: Yes. When the installation is complete and all turbines are running and the wind is blowing at the speed needed for maximum power generation, then the system will provide more power than GB’s average peak daily load as of a couple years ago. If the wind isn’t blowing or turbines are down for maintenance or load exceeds the average daily peak load, then there’ll be brownouts. Or blackouts, such as when there’s a storm and the turbines have to stop generating.
** Fact check: No, it isn’t. Nuke power costs include long-term waste disposal or storage and liability insurance. So far as I can tell, the projected wind power costs were based solely on capital investment and did not include maintenance costs, disposal costs, or return on investment. Nor does wind power price include either massive battery banks, the standby costs of “non-green” power plants for when the wind doesn’t blow, or the external costs of outages.
*** Not that they ever use that term. They call it “feedback”.
this sort of thing is exactly why I think early and widespread mail in voting is a bad idea for fair and open elections.
-there is too much info driving attempts to influence the election beyond convincing voters to support your candidate. This leads to the sort of gaming the system that the e college and in person voting were meant to prevent.
— I’m pretty sure it would be trivial to de-anonymize mail in ballots too. I’m already concerned that you can use timing to de-anonymize actual in person ballots with the computerized voting systems that timestamp the ballots. Trivial to correlate arrival/check in times with votes cast if you had access to the log files, especially now that ID is checked/captured electronically in TX.
n
Maintenance costs are not trivial. Nor are installation costs. Nor are disposal costs.
I have often wondered that if you put a bunch of windmills that get power from the wind, that extraction of energy will also slow down the wind. Too many windmills and the wind will slow significantly below what was needed to produce the numbers to sell to investors. Lots of windmills, slower wind. Slower wind, less electrical generation. Less generation, cost per MWh goes up. None of that is factored into the marketing.
About three miles from where I live TVA installed several massive windmills. I can see them from the high school baseball field and Pellissippi Highway into Oak Ridge. I think there are six or seven windmills. On any given day the gas fired generation plants in the are generating power. The hydro dams are spilling lots of water. Yet only one or two of the windmills are spinning. On some days none of the windmills are operating. Even on hot days, with high demand, gas plant exhaust stacks pumping full volume, the windmills are mostly idle even there is wind.
That seems to indicate to me that TVA is using the cheapest method to generate power. Nuclear, hydro and natural gas. I can indicate on my electric bill if I want to use wind power and pay an extra $0.03 a KWh. Really? How do they separate the electrons on the single set of wires running through my neighborhood. Must be some magical phase shift coupling, carrier twist, surface boundary separation and a little voodoo that I have never heard about.
@ray, there have been studies that show down wind turbines produce less electricity as the airflow has been disrupted, and energy has been removed.
Keeping the gearboxes running has been very difficult, as has been dealing with static electricity in the bearings. Turns out motors often have pitting from arcing in the shaft bearings, and it is very bad with wind turbines (motors in reverse).
There is a lot of armwaving in the alternative energy field.
n
Just listened to a BBC podcast about electric power
Well, there’s the problem. But to be fair, it’s not just the Beeb; all mainstream sources are so polluted with green think that we can’t trust them.
Your footnotes are accurate. Over the last few years, I tried to look into some of this. In particular, I wanted to estimate the real cost per kWh of various sources, stripped of all subsidies and penalties. Or course, this was impossible. We are so soaked with manipulations that it would take a big think tank to do it, partly because of their capability, and partly because they have the determination to access lots more information than I did. I kept running into references that led nowhere, and finally gave up.
I still maintain that, based on operational history, with the possible exception of hydro, even old tech nukes are still the safest, cleanest, and probably the lowest cost sources of energy. Newer designs (hi, DadCooks) have the potential to be even better, but they are burdened with more penalties. We never learn.
@Nick, you mentioned deep cycle batteries of unknown condition. I suggest you watch for a conductance tester at your auctions. Full disclosure, these testers are intended for SLI (Starting, Lighting Ignition) batteries, but should also be useful on deep cycle batteries. I bought one a year ago, and am so far pleased with it. It saves me a lot of time, and seems to give me better assurance of a battery’s condition.
You know the alternative: cycling the battery and measuring its amp hour capacity. This is actually better with deep cycle batteries, and can damage SLI batteries, but a good conductance tester, especially if you get a good one cheap, is a good addition to your test equipment.
Be sure to get one that actually measures AC impedance. Some (I think) might only measure “cold cranking amps.” Although there is a relationship, it is not simple, and probably doesn’t apply to a deep cycle battery.
@jimB, now there’s a piece of test gear I didn’t even know existed!
Amazon has a lot of cheap china ones, that purport to measure many different standards.
I will watch for one. Until recently I haven’t been much interested in batteries other than gel cells from old UPSs. As I pick up pieces for my ‘alf ‘assed solar, that would certainly help.
n
Re: break-ins and cameras
My old friend in San Francisco was complaining on FB this week that theives were breaking into garages on her street. She has security cameras put up but now theives are taking cameras too and the SF police refuse to respond to any call where lives are not in danger. She is scared. And she blames the crime on Trump’s fascist administration and closing down everything putting people out of business. I tried to point out that the president didn’t lock down anybody, in her case it was Newsome, but she loves Newsome. She is also mad that the Walgreens at the end of her street she depended on has closed because they can’t afford the bands of legal looters who take advantage of the California law that any theft under $1000 is a misdemeanor and the police don’t bother with it. So gangs will flood the store piling stuff into carts and the police refuse to respond. She places the blame squarely on Walgreens for policies that were so harsh that people had no alternative other than looting. She was once an intellectual woman but seems now to have lost the ability for critical thinking. When I ask her to name a couple of fascist Trump policies she simply responded “If you don’t know, I’m not going to bother telling you, it’s obvious.”.
Have a new Win10 PC that needs Word and Excel. Quick check on Big River shows Microsoft Office 2019 Home and Student for $114.99 (https://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Office-Student-Windows-Download/dp/B07H4XBM1R/)?tag=ttgnet-20 from Microsoft. Any better legitimate options that will cost less? Price from the MS store is $149.99.
Also, currently have the PC set up without an MS account associated with the login – would that change as this download version appears to require an MS account?
Libre Office – free
We got the final bill for the house, containing all the “extras” that we had done. Fancier kitchen, network cabling, etc, etc. Of course, there’s stuff on there that we disagree with, so we’re having a meeting on Tuesday to sort out the details.
We’ll also go over the list of stuff still pending – which is getting really short. Just 3-4 items left, mostly stupid stuff. Like, there’s one panel that was badly mounted on the side of the house (covering the transition from the concrete lower floor to the wooden siding above. So they took it off, and left it lying on the ground to deal with later. In the meantime, some farmer’s cows got out of their pen and one of them stepped on the panel. So now it needs replaced. Like I said: stupid stuff.
Cut down a bunch more trees today, which grow here like weeds on the boundaries. Most boundaries are terraces. Old and falling down terraces, probably hundreds of years old, but too steep to mow. So bushes sprout, and ultimately trees. No one wants them there, but farmers can’t be bothered. So they grow until someone like us moves in and wants our view expanded.
I need a better solution for storing firewood. Haven’t got one yet. Lots of spindly ashes and birches still add up to a lot of wood.
Meanwhile, the wife is stocking the freezer, slowly but surely. Good to have it full for the Winter. She asked how much beef she should get from the wholesaler for us to process next week. I said 20kg – she thought I was joking, but I wasn’t. We’ll see how much she actually orders. I suggested a brisket – not for freezing, but for eating. Haven’t had a good piece of brisket in a year or more.
Corona, meanwhile, seems here to stay. The population just isn’t taking it as seriously as they did last Spring, so numbers are not coming under control. Since we (as a society) have determined to (try to) not let it spread, it looks like we are in for permanent changes in the way things work: dance clubs, mass tourism, sporting events, concerts, movie theaters – none of those look to have a future at the moment.
Dunno if that makes these the “good old times”. What’s the saying: “the past is a foreign country”? We are the past, and the future will look back and think – gee – that was strange. For us, the future is the foreign country, and we’re headed there to see what it’s like.
My old friend in San Francisco…
You need a new friend. I know it is difficult, but my wife and I have lost friends who have gone off the deep end and think WE have. Sometimes it is just not worth the stress. We have other friends with whom we have mutual disagreements, but we carefully avoid those subjects and stay with the areas we agree on. My attitude is to emphasize the positive, whatever it takes. Not always successful.
this sort of thing is exactly why I think early and widespread mail in voting is a bad idea for fair and open elections.
Three weeks in Texas is a long time in politics. Absent the pandemic, our local polling place is empty for most of the early voting time.
The Biden’s kid laptop wasn’t even on the radar when early voting started in this state.
Williamson County turnout was pushing 70% last night. Election day at the polling places will be a ghost town scene up in Round Rock.
Lunch today was a can of Costco chicken with a use by date of 10-27-2019. Looked fine, tasted fine.
I had to replace the hood struts on my wife’s Honda Crosstour. I ordered some from Amazon – around 11 bucks each. Amzon verified they fit. Yeah, no. So I returned those, and ordered some from Rock Auto. Same price, but another 8 bucks for shipping. Still less than the price of one OEM Honda strut, and the hood needs 2. The struts were delivered this mornign and fit. Nice to no longer have to worry about decapitation when looking under the hood…
Been there, done that…too many niggling compatibility issues with complex documents.
There was a time when I had the patience to play around with torrents and cracks but now I’d rather just pay MS their due. Just checking with the brain-trust here for any easy savings for the legit product.
Used to be able to get Office through work dirt cheap but a couple years back they changed the program to offer only 365 which is not for me.
@jimB, now there’s a piece of test gear I didn’t even know existed!
Probably because, until recently, these were found in battery labs and cost $1500 or so. They first started appearing probably ten years ago for hundreds, sold to pro mechanics. These often had little thermal printers, and were marketed as a profit enhancer: the mech could show the customer that their battery had only xx% capacity left.
The CCJ (Cheap Chinese Junk) ones today are cheap and accurate enough. Where they are insufficient is usually in their battery clips, which can be delicate and wear out quickly. The clips are each two terminal devices, and getting a good connection is paramount. A good battery usually measures just a few milliohms. The clips have a connection for the excitation signal (a few amps of AC around a few kHz, IIRC) and another for the sense circuit.
Measurement technique is important. Make the connection directly to the battery posts. Take several readings; the lowest impedance is the one to remember. The battery should be above about 50% charge (not critical,) but shouldn’t have been charged for at least 24 hours, because a recently charged battery has gas bubbles against the plates that increase its impedance. Even discharging it a little won’t eliminate the gas completely. Experiment with a reasonably good battery to see what I mean, and develop your own technique.
I wish I had a good source to direct you to read, but there is no one that is comprehensive and accurate. There is a lot of misinformation out there. The humble lead acid battery is not simple.
@ray, there have been studies that show down wind turbines produce less electricity as the airflow has been disrupted, and energy has been removed.
Keeping the gearboxes running has been very difficult, as has been dealing with static electricity in the bearings. Turns out motors often have pitting from arcing in the shaft bearings, and it is very bad with wind turbines (motors in reverse).
There is a lot of armwaving in the alternative energy field.
n
There is another problem with wind turbines and solar panels. The disposal costs are very high. The used wind turbine blades are huge and made of carbon fiber. So they must be land filled. And used solar panels are land filled also.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-02-05/wind-turbine-blades-can-t-be-recycled-so-they-re-piling-up-in-landfills
I had to replace the hood struts on my wife’s Honda Crosstour. I ordered some from Amazon – around 11 bucks each. Amzon verified they fit. Yeah, no. So I returned those, and ordered some from Rock Auto. Same price, but another 8 bucks for shipping. Still less than the price of one OEM Honda strut, and the hood needs 2. The struts were delivered this mornign and fit. Nice to no longer have to worry about decapitation when looking under the hood…
Huh, I had to replace the hood struts and the hatch struts on my 2005 Ford Expedition at 10 to 12 years of life. I ordered both sets from Amazon for about $20 each. They all fit correctly and worked perfectly.
And yes, holding up the hood for the manager at Autozone to replace my battery was no fun. He was an amazingly trusting guy.
Re: MS-Office purchase
I get FB ads from the “Cheapify” guys for a full version of Office 2019 for $39.95. Not the ‘365’ version, but the “Office Professional Plus 2019 Full Retail” version.
Have bought two so far, and easily installed – they send you the download link and the license code. You download, install, paste in the license code, and your uncle’s name is Bob.
This is the link for the purchase i made – . https://cheapify.online/products/msoffice19proplus . Order page says not available, but I see FB ads all the time for these guys.
Their site https://cheapify.online/collections/software shows 2 copies for $69.99 and 3 copies for $99.99. But I recall someone emailing them and getting the link for one copy. Still a good deal for two or three.
She has security cameras put up but now theives are taking cameras too
Welcome to the new real !
Gonna need active measures for these scumbags. A guard, neighborhood watch, high walls with broken glass on them and automatic locking gates, etc.
Corona, meanwhile, seems here to stay. The population just isn’t taking it as seriously as they did last Spring, so numbers are not coming under control. Since we (as a society) have determined to (try to) not let it spread, it looks like we are in for permanent changes in the way things work: dance clubs, mass tourism, sporting events, concerts, movie theaters – none of those look to have a future at the moment.
Yup, like I have been saying, the outlook for a vaccine, even a 50% vaccine, is not good. And then getting a significant portion of the populace to take the vaccine will be a D-Day level effort as many people have government trust issues. I wonder why ?
And now comes the conspiracy theory. I am beginning to believe that the Chinese communists released the Covid-19 virus on purpose to damage the USA. I am wondering if they did this with the dum-bro-crats ?
And I am wondering if they have a new version of the virus, tweaked and stronger, waiting to hit us again ?
Yup, like I have been saying, the outlook for a vaccine, even a 50% vaccine, is not good. And then getting a significant portion of the populace to take the vaccine will be a D-Day level effort as many people have government trust issues. I wonder why ?
The VA is hinting about making a vaccine mandatory for all the employees.
I doubt that will happen if Trump is reelected, but I have no doubt Plugs and Kneepads would implement such a plan.
My wife would be back in private practice in a heartbeat.
I think the Gubmint did it to kill off old people so it wouldn’t have to pay even more for end-of-life care under Medicare. 🙂
@Alan, Re: MS-Office purchase, take a look at helpful downloads dot com. For a similar $39.97 you can get Office 2019 Pro Plus for five computers. There are more details there that are beyond me so far. I know you said one PC, but still might be of interest.
I have several computers and devices, and single versions would be costly. I bought an Office 365 key on sale a few years ago, and have not activated it yet. I agree with several here who don’t like SaaS, but some of the features of (now) Microsoft 365 are compelling, especially for my wife’s needs. Still reading about it, but want to give it a chance. Important to me is whether I could “upgrade” to Office 2016 or 2019 later if I wanted to. MS says yes, maybe. Still need to sort this out. I suspect my wife would like the integration with Android, but still don’t know if occasional connectivity absences would cripple this. We would not be storing some files in the cloud, and I need to see how well this works.
Libre Office – free
Also been there, and still am. I actually started with Open Office which was better, but now all but dead. There is a nonfree German office suite for Linux whose name I can’t remember. Highly rated, but costs more than some of the prices mentioned here for the genuine MS Office. I found that after I decided to move back to MS Windows.
BTW, I have no idea how good the Libre Office for Windows is, but I recommended it to a friend who did install it a couple of years ago. He dumped it after about a week, and found a deal on MS Office. He had numerous compatibility issues.
To be fair, I have tweaked LO to produce files in .doc and .xls format. It even works for the .docx and .xlsx flavors. I have had no issues with those, but it took me a while to get this right. Using the open file formats is fraught with problems, so I never tried that. The other obvious problem is there is no support for macros. My wife gets a lot of files like that, and can’t do anything with them. My efforts to help were unsuccessful.
I like standards. I really do. The trouble is there are so many. Beyond that cliché, getting people who are given something (Windows and Office) to get their work done to even think about such complexities is futile. Then there is the boss who orders his support personnel to “just make it work.” He may not know much about standards beyond the thought that they just slow down the work. Reality.
I’ve been futzing with Linux since pre 1.0 Red Hat in 1995, and I still consider myself a newbie as far as sysadmin stuff goes. And just when I got comfortable with init scripts, along came Systemd.
I futzed around with Xenix in 1983 / 1984 (eight inch floppy drives !) on a Tandy box.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRS-80_Model_II
I wrote software on Apollo / RS-6000 / Sun workstations from 1989 to 1995. System admin on those was a mess when we networked them all together in 1990. And I don’t have a clue what Systemd is.
“AstraZeneca vaccine could be ready to use by Christmas”
https://www.khou.com/article/news/local/htownrush/astrazeneca-vaccine-approval-side-effects/285-3ad1cff6-4b49-4482-918e-e2f37d29d436
“First doses would need emergency approval for use by healthcare workers and high-risk patients.”
You first !
@drwilliams, I asked my friend who developed the web application to serve music files about your request, and he said he has never released it to anyone, and has no plans to do so. It is an ongoing project for his personal use, and further dissemination is unlikely. He said if he changes his mind, he will let me know, and I could inform you. In the meantime, he said Greg Norton’s response, “I’ve used iTunes on Windows and OS X for years. Rhythmbox on Linux works well too.” is at least a good start to bringing up a media library of music files (.mp3 or ???) to someday serve on the WWW.
* Fact check: Yes. When the installation is complete and all turbines are running and the wind is blowing at the speed needed for maximum power generation, then the system will provide more power than GB’s average peak daily load as of a couple years ago. If the wind isn’t blowing or turbines are down for maintenance or load exceeds the average daily peak load, then there’ll be brownouts. Or blackouts, such as when there’s a storm and the turbines have to stop generating.
All of the 1.0 MW and bigger wind turbines (I just read 13.0 MW) are constant speed devices providing power to A/C generators. The older smaller wind turbines were D/C generators using variable speed. They vary the load on the generator by the pitch of the blades. If the wind goes too fast then then have to feather the blades. If the wind goes way too fast then they feather the blades all of the way and turn the wind turbine 90 degrees to the wind (no power generation).
Some pollster is saying Texas is now a toss-up State.
Could Plugs actually win Tejas? I don’t think so at this time. Especially not Plugs.
President tRump for four more years will get rid of a lot of deadwood Dumbocrats that are already pushing 80. Stretch, Plugs, Bernie and a lot of others. That’s when the ProgLibTurds will make their move.
SHOTGIRL/harris 2024!
https://www.softmaker.com/en/softmaker-office
–I’ve used their office suite on android for occasional files. I’ve used their pdf program. Once you’re on their mailing list, you’ll get a chance to D/L a free font every month…
They have a free trial too.
n
(this is the german guys)
I’ve got several copies of previous versions of MS Office, home and student, etc. I just picked up 2003 at Goodwill last week in fact. If you can use older versions, they might be cheaper.
Have a new Win10 PC that needs Word and Excel. Quick check on Big River shows Microsoft Office 2019 Home and Student for $114.99 (https://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Office-Student-Windows-Download/dp/B07H4XBM1R/)?tag=ttgnet-20 from Microsoft. Any better legitimate options that will cost less? Price from the MS store is $149.99.
Also, currently have the PC set up without an MS account associated with the login – would that change as this download version appears to require an MS account?
The amount of fraud in the Microsoft software market is simply amazing. For business usage, I would only buy from the MS store so as to get genuine software without viruses and other payloads. For personal usage, you can take your chances if you want …
I have been buying Windows 10 Pro from the MS store for $199 each on USB sticks.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/windows-10-pro/DF77X4D43RKT/0002?activetab=pivot%3aoverviewtab
I wrote software on Apollo / RS-6000 / Sun workstations from 1989 to 1995. System admin on those was a mess when we networked them all together in 1990. And I don’t have a clue what Systemd is.
Systemd is a replacement for init on the surface, but it touches on a lot more.
If Microsoft really wanted to put Windows on a Linux kernel, they would write a replacement for Systemd and a Windows “compositor” for Wayland. Easier said than done.
Seems that there was a baseball world series and someone even won it. I never noticed.
n
Some pollster is saying Texas is now a toss-up State.
Could Plugs actually win Tejas? I don’t think so at this time. Especially not Plugs.
President tRump for four more years will get rid of a lot of deadwood Dumbocrats that are already pushing 80. Stretch, Plugs, Bernie and a lot of others. That’s when the ProgLibTurds will make their move.
SHOTGIRL/harris 2024!
Not yet. Not yet. Maybe in four years. For sure in eight years.
If Trump wins this one, I fully expect the top of the dum-bro-crat ticket in 2024 to be AOC (Shotgirl !). And maybe that turban headed chick with the 3 or 4 husbands as VP. Gotta be born in the USA to be prez or vp, that is so outdated !
NO, don’t. You are using the software under their account, not yours. I would avoid.
If you don’t need collaboration, and the newer features, I can get you a copy of Office 2003 Pro with a static activation key. Legal copy, from MS. Beyond that, the person makes the decision about legality of installing. The key does not require activation beyond entering the key, never phones home to MS.
You can install as many copies as you like as the key does not phone home. Yes, missing newer stuff, but I have yet to use any of the newer stuff. Everything I have needed would work fine in Office 2003. That version does support the DOCX format without issues and has the ribbon.
I avoid the sites with low prices on MS products. There is always a catch and I simply don’t trust these sites to provide a copy that is not somehow gimmicked.
I am on Office 2016 (all legal) and see no reason to upgrade.
If you work for a non-profit try to get signed up for TechSoup. They partner with Microsoft (and others) for deeply discounted, 100% legal, software from the vendors. Microsoft donates the software and the fee paid is an administrative fee to the organization so they can pay their bills. I am in the process of attempting to get 10 copies of Office 365 PRO for $0.00. Windows 10 PRO can be gotten for $39.00. Again, the software is from Microsoft, no third party. Techsoup just acts as a gate keeper to validate the organization to Microsoft.
Seems that there was a baseball world series and someone even won it. I never noticed.
I kept tabs only because of Tampa Bay. I imagine there are more Rays fans in Houston than Tampa.
I also occasionally catch Yucs games this year. Tom Brady is playing really well *at 43*.
“Texas Ballot Chaser Reveals ‘Massive’ Voter Fraud To Elect Biden”
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/texas-ballot-chaser-reveals-massive-voter-fraud-elect-biden
“In it, political operative Raquel Rodriguez who “develops personal relationships with senior citizens when she harvests their ballots” admitted to convincing voters to switch their ballots.”
Not good for us and the Trumper.
this sort of thing is exactly why I think early and widespread mail in voting is a bad idea for fair and open elections.
Three weeks in Texas is a long time in politics. Absent the pandemic, our local polling place is empty for most of the early voting time.
The Biden’s kid laptop wasn’t even on the radar when early voting started in this state.
Williamson County turnout was pushing 70% last night. Election day at the polling places will be a ghost town scene up in Round Rock.
“Fort Bend County has the third highest voter turnout so far among the most populous counties in Texas, county officials are reporting.”
https://www.fbherald.com/news/fort-bend-county-ranks-3rd-in-early-voter-turnout/article_4ba0edb4-184e-11eb-9651-bf5c21dfbee4.html
“Only Collin County, with 53.7% turnout, and Denton County, with 52% turnout, are outvoting Fort Bend County, which has seen a 49.8% voter turnout since early voting began on Oct. 13.”
“With three days remaining until the end of early voting, already 245,916 residents in Fort Bend County have cast ballots in the Nov. 3 general election.”
“Just over 480,000 residents are eligible to vote in the general election that features a presidential race, senate race and hotly-contested District 22 congressional race.”
If Trump wins this one, I fully expect the top of the dum-bro-crat ticket in 2024 to be AOC (Shotgirl !). And maybe that turban headed chick with the 3 or 4 husbands as VP. Gotta be born in the USA to be prez or vp, that is so outdated !
Payola went to Pence with the Supreme Court pick so I imagine he’s the front runner for the Republicans with DeSantis as VP for the Electoral College calculus assuming he survives reelection.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-8885887/SpaceX-set-unleash-Starlink-Better-Beta-service-600-upfront.html
n
“SpaceX’s Starlink ‘Better Than Nothing Beta’ service costs $600 upfront and tells customers they may have periods of no connection”
” SpaceX is gearing up to unleash its ‘Better Than Nothing Beta’ internet”
” Customers received an email with details about the service and pricing”
” The monthly fee is $99 and the Starlink Kit costs $499, all of which needs to be paid upfront in order to use the new internet”
” However, the email also says there may be periods with no connection at all”
This would be a good backup service for us in my out in the country office.
I am thinking about jumping to AT&T Fiber if they can get the cost down to $500/month. But we need a backup service for when some idiot cuts the line.
Off2003 doesn’t have the ribbon. That’s why I still use it. 🙂
“Biden Is Running a Protection Racket By Sidney Powell”
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/10/biden_is_running_a_protection_racket.html
“Joe Biden’s big pitch is his promise to restore calm. It’s a con. It’s Antifa and Black Lives Matter — both on his side — that are stirring everything up. He’s trying to run a protection racket: vote Democrat, or the chaos continues.”
“Biden talks of calm, but it is not Trump-supporters storming restaurants and other public places across the country to demand obeisance to their agenda. Instead, from Washington to Kentucky to Florida, it is the “Black Lives Matter” movement — which Biden has made a centerpiece of his campaign — that has smashed up restaurants, threatened their owners, and demanded that diners raise the black power fist. As one headline put it, “aggressive mob of white BLM protesters threaten and film white diners at DC restaurants and DEMAND they raise their fist and show solidarity with them…or else.””
“Biden speaks of tolerance, but it isn’t MAGA people marching into our schools, newsrooms, and even corporate boardrooms to demand absolute allegiance; it’s Biden-supporting leftists. As President Trump warned in his Independence Day address at Mt. Rushmore, if you do not “perform its rituals, recite its mantras, and follow its commandments, then you will be censored, banished, blacklisted, persecuted, and punished.””
No matter what, things will not return to the same after the election. If Biden wins, I expect AOC level radicals put in federal offices all over the country. If Trump wins, I expect conservatives put in federal offices all over the country. In both cases, I expect the chaos and fake demonstrations to continue.
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
Just another reason Plugs needs to be crushed out of existence. An Electoral landslide would do that.
OK. I stand corrected. Memory failure.
“Ted Cruz Curb-Stomps Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey: ‘Who the Hell Elected You?’”, “Dorsey Admits To Mob-Driven Censorship On Twitter During Heated Section 230 Hearing”
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/watch-live-ceos-facebook-twitter-google-set-be-grilled-senate-hearing
“CRUZ: “Does Twitter have the ability to influence elections?”
“DORSEY: “No”
“CRUZ: “If you don’t think you have the power to influence elections, why do you block anything?””
“Dorsey – very calm – responds to Cruz: “We realize we need to earn trust more. We realize more accountability is needed.””
“Toward the end of the back and forth, Cruz laid into Dorsey: “Who the hell elected you and put you in charge of what the media are allowed to report and what the American people are allowed to hear?””
You go Ted !
Dorsey reminds of the weed fueled vampire in Buffy the Vampyr Slayer in season 4.
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
Just another reason Plugs needs to be crushed out of existence. An Electoral landslide would do that.
Just another reason the dum-bro-crat party needs to be crushed out of existence. An Electoral landslide would do that.
Fixed that for ya.
If Microsoft really wanted to put Windows on a Linux kernel…
Stupid question: wouldn’t it be better to put Linux on a Windows kernel? It seems to me that Linux lacks support for a lot of hardware that Windows handles well.
To be fair, I have had trouble with hardware drivers for both Windows and Linux. I have also had really good success with both, but my hardware trials are an infinitesimal sample. I don’t keep track, but I have probably had more trouble with hardware on Linux than Windows. And… I have read that people have failed miserably trying to get some hardware to work on Linux. I believe this is probably lack of support software than drivers, but the result is the same. Professional document scanners come to mind. These seem to come with sophisticated software which is only supported on Windows.
I wonder if we will ever get to what Jerry said: the OS is becoming irrelevant. I think he was speaking about virtualization.
That’s because the TV told her the same thing and she doesn’t actually know which policies are supposedly fascist (where fascist means anyone who isn’t a democrat).
Stupid question: wouldn’t it be better to put Linux on a Windows kernel? It seems to me that Linux lacks support for a lot of hardware that Windows handles well.
That’s essentially what WSL does right now, but it is bloatware and didn’t play well with other virtualization tech until recently.
Microsoft has a competitive advantage with 20 years of WHQL for device drivers in the NT Kernel, particularly with multimedia. I don’t see them abandoning that.
“Get Off Of My Lawn ”
http://raconteurreport.blogspot.com/2020/10/get-off-of-my-lawn.html
For Peter:
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2020/10/massad-ayoob-offers-good-advice-on.html
Looks like Aesop was backed up. Because he is sure is posting a lot now. And nasty post about Tetanus really messing you up if you have a GSW.
http://raconteurreport.blogspot.com/2020/10/plan-b-and-c-and-d-and-e.html
Office 2003. That version does support the DOCX format without issues and has the ribbon.
Off2003 doesn’t have the ribbon. That’s why I still use it.
I hate the stupid junky crappy unfigurable goofy ribbon. But I love my customers so I use Office 2016 on my office pc.
“Just another reason Plugs needs to be crushed out of existence. An Electoral landslide would do that.”
Just another reason the dum-bro-crat party needs to be crushed out of existence. An Electoral landslide would do that.
Fixed that for ya.
They survived 1994 and 2010 thanks to the nominations of Bob Dole and Mittens, respectively, the following Presidential election years.
The TV audio streamer provided, no charge to me, by the VA works quite well. I needed to get an optical splitter as the audio optical output from the TV was already in use for the sound bar. Splitter is USB powered as is the streamer. I have two USB ports on the TV. Got the splitter today and hooked it up.
With the phone app I can adjust the background and streamer volume independently. Background is required as the aids alone are horribly shallow in sound. Volume is completely independent of the TV speaker volume which is considered the background volume.
Who knew some of those fluff reporters were so annoying?
“Study suggests no more CO2 warming”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/10/26/study-suggests-no-more-co2-warming/
“Precision research by physicists William Happer and William van Wijngaarden has determined that the present levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide and water vapor are almost completely saturated. In radiation physics the technical term “saturated” implies that adding more molecules will not cause more warming.”
“In plain language this means that from now on our emissions from burning fossil fuels could have little or no further impact on global warming. There would be no climate emergency. No threat at all. We could emit as much CO2 as we like; with no effect.”
If this is true, then it is a major hiccup for the climate change so-called scientists. I have been wondering for quite a while if there was a saturation limit effect for CO2 in the atmosphere. Most chemical effects are limited by saturation limits. Why should CO2 be any different ?
You should have Googled here. 🙂
I did mention a while ago two simple things that work in delaying up to 7 days the updates and with no background downloads within that period using Windows 10 Home version. Pro not required.
– In Settings\Windows Update: “Pause Updates for 7 days”. That works delaying up to 7 days.
During that period you can do it whenever you wish.
– In Settings\Windows Update\Advanced Options: “Download updates over metered connections” = OFF. That works for no background downloads.
– In Settings\Windows Update\Advanced Options: “Pause Updates” = date. I have had no need to use this but it is even available in the Home version.
I also offered at the time to notify Patch Tuesdays so you would be aware that changes are coming.
It all works if you take the time within that period to do the update yourself.
I also have Windows Store with No automatic updates.
Come Patch Tuesday, I know what is coming and mostly on the following weekend I do the check for updates and update the laptops. The laptops that are not used frequently I boot connecting them to Internet and then the first thing they will do is update. No stopping that unless you set a date before letting it loose on the Internet, I suppose
Why? The immune response in the intial results are in line with other successful vaccines.
The local ISP has started a beta of some kind. It’s $60 plus tax to set up a “cloud DVR” which is a little i5 “just for just you” at their location. Monthly charge unknown.
Over the air TV from their antenna 160 feet up a tower on top of a nearby hill will give 70 channels or so from Austin, Waco, Dallas and San Antonio. $15 a month. Tempting….
Just BSing here, I suppose I use Plex on the Roku (or PC or phone) to connect to the cloud DVR that connects to the over the air antenna. Yippee! Dig into the Roku menu to get to Plex and /more/ menus. And then I can watch the local TV stations.
As a bonus, I can do this from anywhere. Why? Shrug. Part of traveling is trying the local food, local beer, local TV. Maybe I’m doing it wrong.
I think I’m going to pass. Yes, I would like to get the Austin locals via the Roku when the weather over Lake Travis goes foggy (or whatever it does) and everything cuts out. Same for 14-3 to the west near Llano. Then again, I’ve watched every episode of Star Trek and Picard’s version at least 10 times each. No ST? We watch cop shows or what ever is on 62, that channel always works.
Oh. For about $29 a month, you can get a better “cloud DVR”, an i7, with more storage, and get Spectrum Cable TV through it.
What Spectrum charges you depends on the cable package you choose.
This is actually cool stuff. As long as the ISP’s internal network is up, you can watch TV.
Oh, WAIT!!! I had that with DirecTV!!!111!!1! And there was nothing to watch which is why I dropped DirecTV and the $140/month bill.
Yeah. I’m going to pass. It’s just TV. What I get over the air is plenty. If it doesn’t work, oh well.
Yup, like I have been saying, the outlook for a vaccine, even a 50% vaccine, is not good.
Why? The immune response in the intial results are in line with other successful vaccines.
But these vaccines are not attenuated versions of the actual virus like previous vaccines. Several of the COVID-19 vaccines are RNA modifiers. Very much untested in the general population. We need to extensively test these vaccines before releasing them to the general population. Years and years of testing is required.
As mentioned before, my wife was part of the Herceptin clinical trial for advanced breast cancer back in 2005. During the year long weekly administration of Herceptin, her heart squish effectiveness declined from 55% to 45%. Concerning but not dangerous, 20% is dangerous. This was a known side effect of the Herceptin destroying her heart muscle. What was not known was the heart recovery time, if any. The clinical trial, which was stopped early since the re-occurrence of breast cancer in these women dropped from 65% to 35%, proved that the heart damage was worth the risk. And then her heart squish returned to normal after five years so her heart muscle fully grew back after the damage.
We really need some several year long studies of this new type of vaccine. A death rate of 0.03% for the general population does not justify rushing this out to the masses. Maybe to seniors but, I am a senior and will not take it for a year or so.
I think I’m going to pass. Yes, I would like to get the Austin locals via the Roku when the weather over Lake Travis goes foggy (or whatever it does) and everything cuts out. Same for 14-3 to the west near Llano. Then again, I’ve watched every episode of Star Trek and Picard’s version at least 10 times each. No ST? We watch cop shows or what ever is on 62, that channel always works.
Looks like you can get the Dallas locals on Locast on your Roku.
https://www.locast.org/
Same here.
I remember watching a game during the 1988 series. My parents were visiting me, both Oakland fans, and I was the Dodger guy. We were all on the edges of our seats watching the 22″ color tv in my apartment. Lasorda vs La Russa, Kurt Gibson versus Dennis Eckersley…
And now, because of the 1994 strike, I never go to games in person, and rarely watch at all.
And now, because of BLM antics, I have have completely boycotted this season and this series.
I didn’t leave them, they chose, very deliberately, to leave me.
Friends who remember me as a Dodger fan have been texting congratulations, I don’t know what to say.
Other things took the place of watching baseball, and I’m not filling the pockets of horrible people, but it’s a sad feeling nonetheless.
“Heroes Who Intervened in Texas Church Shootings Slam Biden’s ‘Insane’ Gun Control Views”
https://www.faithwire.com/2020/10/28/heroes-who-intervened-during-texas-church-shootings-slam-bidens-insane-gun-control-views/
“The two heroes responsible for intervening in deadly mass shootings at Texas churches in 2017 and 2019 are speaking out against Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s “insane” gun control views.”
“Wilson, who took down a would-be attacker at a Fort Worth church in 2019, asserts in the video that, if elected president next week, Biden will work “to make gun ownership only affordable to the elite.” He went on to say gun ownership is a fundamental right in the U.S., arguing, “The fact is, the only thing that will keep us safe in times of evil are our guns. Evil will always exist.””
“There is a clip of Biden in the NRA video condemning Willeford for using an AR-15 rifle to stop the attacker at Sutherland Springs Baptist Church, where 26 people were ultimately murdered.”
“Biden said Willeford “shouldn’t be carrying” such a firearm.”
Joe Biden is a bad man.
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
A couple of days ago it was suggested I get a steak out of the freezer so it would be thawed for my b’day. Or do I want to go somewhere? Nope, I don’t.
I pulled out a chunk of the last brisket I cooked to thaw. It’s in a vac bag. Before it was sealed, I propped it up and added a cup or so of brisket juice, let that freeze, and then vac sealed the bag. Put in fridge a couple of days to semi thaw and smooth out the sharp edges of the bag.
Brisket, soaking up the juice for a few days and a baked potato. 🙂
Yeah, I don’t know the Hex and etc counting ways. But LXIII in Roman works. Sheesh…. and I still have all of my teeth.
Yeah, I don’t know the Hex and etc counting ways. But LXIII in Roman works. Sheesh…. and I still have all of my teeth.
0x3F.
Happy birthday !
@Marcelo – yes, you did offer that info, and I do appreciate that. I also appreciate your warning about patch Tuesday.
But I stand by my statement- you can’t stop updates, only delay them. That means picking a time, shutting off the recordings, and going thru the process manually. Better than having it happen automatically and getting hung up, but not how I want to spend my time, working AROUND someone else’s use and control of what is ostensibly MY computer.
And has everyone forgotten that win10 is one big piece of spyware? Again, you can mitigate that, and work around it, but few do and you have to stay on top of it.
Oh yeah, and the whole “app” thing and tiles. Again working around with classic start menu, but shouldn’t have to.
n
re cloud dvr, didn’t someone try that, renting antennas and streaming over the internet, and then got sued out of existence?
n
Yes, they did. I think the ruling was flawed. The physical location of my rented antenna should be of no concern to the plaintiffs. If I need a 3,000 mile cable, that is my problem. Unfortunately, deeper pockets prevailed, rather than legal sense.
Not everyone.
IIRC, they technically weren’t sued out of existence. They were court costs-ed out of existence, combined with the problem of getting more investor money with the lawsuit hanging over them.
Happy birthday, Paul. And, remember, it’s not the years, it’s the miles. Hope you enjoy dinner. Throw some leftovers to Penny and the others.
re cloud dvr, didn’t someone try that, renting antennas and streaming over the internet, and then got sued out of existence?
Yes. Within the last 10 years at some point. Nation wide service with about a dozen cities.
The local cable systems extort the broadcasters with carriage fees, and the service caught the attention of Comcast and Spectrum.
I have a couple of Antennas Direct’s biggest antennas mounted on speaker stands in my attic, aimed in different directions, and connected to separate segments of my coax network. I get Waco stations as well as Austin’s at our location in Round Rock.
re cloud dvr, didn’t someone try that, renting antennas and streaming over the internet, and then got sued out of existence?
n
Yes, as a money making concern. Locast is a non-profit. They ask for donations.
https://www.locast.org/
The broadcasters have sued and failed so far since they are a non-profit.
https://www.tablotv.com/blog/what-locast-lawsuit-means-cordcutters/
And there is not a DVR. It is all real time tv. Works well with a Roku.
https://www.locast.org/donate
Komrade Sanders says the knife guy shot in Philly “was murdered by the cops in front of his mother.”
This is on Twitter. A Dumbocrat can say whatever on Twitter and … yawn. If a Redumbo Tweeted this and immediate sanction would apply. That’s why the CEOs of Twitter and FaceCrack were called before Congress. Murdered. Shithead Sanders was not there!
“COVID-19 is at least 5 times deadlier than flu for hospitalized patients”
https://www.livescience.com/covid-19-vs-flu-deaths-hospitalized-patients.html
“Hospitalized COVID-19 patients were also at higher risk for 17 serious health complications, compared with flu patients.”
Stay out of hospitals, people die there.
Somebody here is going to have a Nooooooooooooooo moment…
https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-reportedly-overhauling-the-windows-10-ui-in-21h2
@Lynn
“Study suggests no more CO2 warming”
Pass the popcorn.
see also “CMIP6 Update”
For those who have not invested years in understanding the anti-scientific basis of the climate scam, I would draw your attention to the list of conclusions, which includes this gem which is easily understood by anyone with technical training:
Fifth, CMIP6 climate models, like their antecedents, will have to show about 1000-fold improved resolution to reliably detect a CO2 signal.
or in other words, about as effective as building cabinets with an undivided meter stick as your only measuring tool.
Ummm, I actually think that is a bit scary. If you consider Twitter “media” like a newspaper, I don’t think you want anyone elected that will tell the American people what the media are allowed to report or allowed to hear. I am thinking this is the exact opposite of freedom of the press and private ownership of media. Newspapers (or radio or television) are privately owned and the publisher has some control over content. Now if Twitter is not media – say just a common carrier – then maybe they are obliged to remain neutral. It is not clear-cut anymore nor is it clear if something like Twitter is fish or fowl.
@JimB
Thanks for checking.
@Nick
“…but not how I want to spend my time, working AROUND someone else’s use and control of what is ostensibly MY computer.
And has everyone forgotten that win10 is one big piece of spyware? Again, you can mitigate that, and work around it, but few do and you have to stay on top of it.”
In an updated movie, Winston Smith would work for Amazon and Google.
My computer. My books. My music.
It’s probably too late to go shopping for decommissioned missile silos.
” then maybe they are obliged to remain neutral. It is not clear-cut anymore nor is it clear if something like Twitter is fish or fowl.”
–They got the ‘common carrier’ protections, arguing that they couldn’t control what people post on their service. Then they went and developed the tools, staff, and infrastructure to do so, and they DID so, and with a demonstrable political slant.
Trump has threatened to remove those protections (section 260) if they don’t start playing fair.
There are also a couple of other factors. Media consolidation means that there can be effective gatekeeping and control over messaging. If almost all media companies are controlled by only 6 companies, that is not a healthy or diverse marketplace. The services have also grown very big, with enormous barriers to entry.
The big platforms are going to have to chose, are they common carriers, or are they publishers?
n
And yeah, NOOOOOOOOooooooooo! except, maybe it will be better?
n
Agree, I’m not sure Trump has the right attitude on this. Better that Trump gets on gab and parler rather giving legitimacy to twitter.
SteveF & I are on gab, so obviously it’s worthwhile 🙂
There are many good groups on Telegram also.
Great! That is the spirit.
I take the pros and deal with the cons or just side-step them.
I have no issues with Tiles and Start. I use useful tiles in the tablet where the interface is a benefit but use Start rarely. I have 24 progs\apps pinned to my taskbar in my working laptop and very rarely need to start something that is not there. Point click and it started. 🙂
Working laptop: I have no idea how many tiles I have there. Never bothered to look or remove.
On the other hand I was 100% behind Dark Mode from the start.
“Study suggests no more CO2 warming”
Pass the popcorn.
see also “CMIP6 Update”
For those who have not invested years in understanding the anti-scientific basis of the climate scam, I would draw your attention to the list of conclusions, which includes this gem which is easily understood by anyone with technical training:
Fifth, CMIP6 climate models, like their antecedents, will have to show about 1000-fold improved resolution to reliably detect a CO2 signal.
or in other words, about as effective as building cabinets with an undivided meter stick as your only measuring tool.
“Analytical rigor typically requires the instrumental detection limit (resolution) to be 10 times smaller than the expected measurement magnitude. So, to fully detect a signal from CO2 or GHG emissions, current climate models will have to improve their resolution by nearly 1000-fold.”
“Another way to put the case is that CMIP6 climate models cannot possibly detect the impact, if any, of CO2 emissions or of GHG emissions on the terrestrial climate or on global air temperature.”
“This fact is destined to be ignored in the consensus climatology community.”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/10/27/cmip6-update/
Wow. I knew that the models were bad but not this bad.
Some of the radio bands are quite open tonight.
7mhz is quiet with good signals.
Even higher on the band, I heard Greece.
and lower, 4.840 sounds like broadcast AM radio – granted it’s in florida.
5.085 out of Nashville sounds good too, very low background noise levels tonight.
Hams out of florida were coming in strong too.
Cuba is booming in in the 6 mhz range..
n
And now I’ve stayed up tuning around the dial for an hour longer than I wanted too.
n
I brought the Windows MS Office 2003 home many years ago for work at home as it was company subsidized. Still use it on W7 desktop but need Libre Office on W10 laptop as had trouble installing 2003 Excell there. Although it doesn’t have an Access equivalent, OK because I no longer do company work from home. Just need to remember on Libre to save files on 2003 formats.
Caution if you do use Access as I now think that cheaoer versions of current MS Office do not include Access.
While working on Launch Vehicles I found it very successful to use MS VBS for Applications to merge flight data back and forth between the Office programs and older FII prorams into MS Word data containing numerical data for sending to CCAFS prior to the launches.
If the GPS devices in your cars work ok, I made no fatal mistakes.