Or is there?
Anyway, nice and dry, sunny and pleasant. That’s my hope anyway. It was nice yesterday, all day.
So I spent the morning indoors and the afternoon mostly driving around.
Did my pickups, sorta. My wife and daughter decided to get some bonding time in after the braces went on. I subsequently got a very late start on my tasks. No drop off, no check pickup, and only a few of my other pickups. I’ve got some very short windows for pickups today, and they are far apart.
It’s also the last rain free day forecast before Christmas, and I’ve still got stuff to put up outside. I’m falling behind. Way behind.
Work gets sloppy when I get rushed, and some stuff just doesn’t get done at all. But I can’t really see where that will apply to my list of jobs right now.
Time to suck it up I guess.
And time to get busy. No time to wax poetical on my failings or how the world is letting me down.
Go do some work to improve your position for what is coming down the pike. Sell some stuff. Buy some stuff. STACK some stuff.
nick
….when you spend 4 hours debugging a problem with some PHP code that sends email, and you find out you misspelled the ‘to’ email address by one little character…..
PHP 7/8 is getting better with debugging messages as part of the race with Hack to be the PHP 5 replacement, but isolating problems is still a pain.
Yesterday, I forgot Perl didn’t have real case/switch until Perl 6. But Perl 6 isn’t “Perl” anymore.
I also forgot that strings are not compared with ‘==’. Geesh. Really? Of course, Perl happily ran the code without a message.
No time off save for the company holidays this week.
t’s also the last rain free day forecast before Christmas, and I’ve still got stuff to put up outside. I’m falling behind. Way behind.
No outside lights this year at our house. My wife made the mistake of agreeing to round at the hospital on Sunday, and Austin had a bumper crop of heroin OD cases over the weekend.
Tis the season …
I wonder when the legalization for meth, heroin, and crack begins in Oregon. Small quantities make great stocking stuffers.
Not many countries outside the USA are crazy enough to add a water absorbent to perfectly good gasoline. And no commodity engines are made in the USA.
Take the Interstate north out of Kansas City to Omaha. At around the mid-way point, you will see the reason that ethanol in gasoline is not going away anytime soon. The only chemical facility I’ve seen firsthand bigger than that distillery is Sinclair, Wyoming, where the whole town is a refinery.
Our company has both Thursday and Friday off this week and next, but I may need to work the Thursdays and possibly even the Fridays. DevOps doesn’t sleep, which various important — “important” — people at the company consistently fail to comprehend. The customers definitely need their reports on both Thursdays. Company management said there will be no reports on the company holidays but some of the recipients are complaining.
Note that it’s probably not a big deal to get into the systems and make sure everything is running well. I have everything set so it’s automated. It all needs to be checked, though, and when things fall down it can be a major chore to get it working again. However, the real nuisance is the back-and-forth jerking around going on.
My wife is off this week and next, use it or lose it and we didn’t use it yet. She’s still checking email and taking calls though, so if something comes up she’ll deal with it. That’s pretty unlikely as most of her customers/clients are also off now.
Kids are home from school until early Jan. Feels like they’ve barely been IN school with Tgiving, and now Xmas.
n
It’s already here.
There’s nothing that can be done.
No point in closing the border.
It probably started here.
It may have spread to UK from here
It’s all Trump’s fault.
n
No time off for me except the two holidays. I have 260ish hours of PTO accrued. I have to take 3 weeks off next year or else I lose anything above 200 hours at the end of the year. Hopefully travel will be an option next summer.
Banked PTO is a growing problem for companies. It’s a huge liability on their balance sheets as unused PTO has to be paid out upon termination. Nobody is taking PTO because travel sucks right now and so many people are working from home. My boss got a nastygram from HR not too far back because the entire team has 100+ hours of unused PTO. I’m at 240 which is the max, so I have to take a couple of days off every month now or I lose it.
Banked PTO is a growing problem for companies. It’s a huge liability on their balance sheets as unused PTO has to be paid out upon termination.
The last job wiped all accrued PTO beyond half of an employee’s annual allotment on Jan. 1 so everyone tended to be gone the last two weeks of the year just to burn time. Management waived the rule for 2018/19 but enforced it last year since the company was teetering on the edge.
Can all of the politicians please be done getting COVID-19 vaccinations on TV? Seriously. Just how many need to do it?
@Nick
Get your daughter a WaterPik. Your dentist and orthodont will agree. I have beautiful teeth and gums and it started with braces in my teens and the habits developed back then keeping the buggers clean.
Can all of the politicians please be done getting COVID-19 vaccinations on TV? Seriously. Just how many need to do it?
You really think they’re receiving the vaccination and not sterile water or a B-12 shot?
https://www.flixfling.com
Streaming service with a slew of old, classic, and obscure movies not found elsewhere. A big library, too. I haven’t yet perused it all.
More analysis coming out of the stimulus bill. So much pork. No goobermint agency should get pork. No new studies and pork laden panels should be in there. Every dime should go to only those who paid taxes. It’s our money.
They are all insane.
It was your money.
I read on the news where the stimulus bill was 5,500 pages long. OMFG, how is that even possible? There has got to be so much fluff, useless items, garbage, special interest, probably even a massive Christmas bonus for congress for working so hard. Who even has time to read the entire bill?
And on some more useless drivel. Wife and son had a major falling out. Son never wanted to see the wife again. We have been “allowed” to visit for Christmas and there “will be a discussion”. Have no idea how that is going to pan out. We were told under no circumstance would we be allowed to stay overnight. We are arriving Thursday and staying in a hotel. The “discussion” will be on Thursday evening, we think. May not go well. We may just be driving home the following morning for Christmas with the son very possibly telling the wife he never wants to see her again. If that happens I am prepared to tell the son he has officially become an orphan. I refuse to play the games.
A lot of the issues are the son’s wife. She was raised by basically a single mom as her father was on the road a lot. Her mother was not the best person to be raising kids. Wife inherited a lot of her mother’s issues and baggage and is, in my opinion, manipulating the son.
Article about how FireEye found out about the “SolarWinds” attack, via an attack on their (FireEye) infrastructure. Interview with the CEO.
https://www.npr.org/2020/12/21/948843356/how-a-cybersecurity-firm-uncovered-the-massive-computer-hack
I read on the news where the stimulus bill was 5,500 pages long. OMFG, how is that even possible? There has got to be so much fluff, useless items, garbage, special interest, probably even a massive Christmas bonus for congress for working so hard. Who even has time to read the entire bill?
One of the few practical things I learned in grad school is that LaTeX makes huge documents from multiple contributors very easy, especially a lot of the text is computer generated. I imagine Congress uses something similar going back to the late 90s, when Word was still so bad that a lot of organizations with large document output requirements ran Framemaker.
One of my nephews is estranged from his parents because of, you guessed it, his wife. No one’s talking much about the details but it sounds like the wife made the “it’s me or your mother” ultimatum.
At my company, we have always had “a use it or lose it policy” for PTO. No exceptions are being made for COVID and that generally no one took any vacation. So as we approach year end, everyone is taking at least the last two weeks off. I began taking time off in November to use up my vacation and personal days. Sick time does not accrue either.
My home state, NJ, has the dubious honor of the most deaths/million population: 2,066.
How many? Ummm, every one that’s up for reelection during the next cycle.
No outside lights this year at our house. My wife made the mistake of agreeing to round at the hospital on Sunday, and Austin had a bumper crop of heroin OD cases over the weekend.
Tis the season …
I wonder when the legalization for meth, heroin, and crack begins in Oregon. Small quantities make great stocking stuffers.
The wife’s BFF’s youngest daughter OD’d in Los Angeles on heroin around Halloween. Her boyfriend got her to the hospital before the seizures got too bad. This is her second time to OD. I just cannot believe what a sweet young lady will do to herself.
I was able to burn a DL DVD+R with Windows 10 for my primary desktop, but it turned out to be unnecessary. On a whim, I tried Easy BCD Edit, installed on the Windows 7 partition, to create a new boot entry for Win 10, and it worked.
Not much is installed on the Windows 10 partition, but I wasn’t enthused about starting over with a clean install either.
Filed for future reference. Along with the fact that both of my beige-era internal DVD burners can read and write DL DVD+R.
I stopped with the outside lights several years ago. No one was interested except me.
Hmm. Can you still buy 7 watt bulbs?
I just had an idea. I use a 100 watt bulb in the pump house to keep the water softener above freezing. Ok, now I use a 75w because whatever.
But I could butcher a string of Christmas lights …. and have the bonus of still having some heat if a few burn out compared to nothing.
I mean, if I have a string of 12 bulbs and 4 a year burn out, I’m good for almost 15 years. Put the string on a dimmer and I’ll be good for 20 years. After that, heck, I’ll worry about it when I’m 83.
That’s the whole point, you’re not supposed to read it.
‘Nothing to see here sir, please move along.’
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/here-full-text-covid-stimulus-bill-all-5593-pages-it
“Funding for a commission to educate consumers “about the dangers associated with using or storing portable fuel containers for flammable liquids near an open flame.”
“$2 billion for the Space Force!”
And $600 for you.
‘Look! Cows!’
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/pork-city-here-are-most-ridiculous-pet-projects-900-billion-spending-package
And from yesterday’s comments…
Two words: Term Limits
Sure…
https://www.amazon.com/Novelty-Lights-Ceramic-Christmas-Replacement/dp/B004Q6JFBY/?tag=ttgnet-20
Gotta recommend
https://www.flixfling.com/watch/15644/ECH1825-R-SD again
I’ve always wanted to see Flesh Gordon! (1974) 🙂
I’ve always wanted to see Flesh Gordon!
What about “Party At Kitty And Studs”?
No, not Andrew Gillum’s political career meltdown in the Miami Beach hotel the first weekend in quarantine. The original Sylvester Stallone soft porn flick.
Do we know whether the NSA itself was hacked?
I don’t have any idea.
Sounds like the NSA was probably hacked.
I suspect that it is time to go back to the old hard to manage firewalls that you had to have an account and password to get outside the org with. Of course, our double NAT is no good if you want to get outside from the inside.
My home state, NJ, has the dubious honor of the most deaths/million population: 2,066.
And that is 0.2% for a high population density state. Except the Bruce, he lives on 378 acres.
https://virtualglobetrotting.com/map/bruce-springsteens-house-3/view/google/
Plenty of pork is important to both sides if they want to keep the cushy Congressional gigs for themselves and staff members who grow accustomed to DC life.
Two words: Term Limits
What is what will never happen in the USA Congress without a Civil War ?
After 30+ years of usage, my original Microsoft Intellimouse Optical Mouse is dying (giving double clicks for single clicks). I stole one of the same mouses off one of the file servers but it just does not feel the same.
https://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-D58-00026-Intellimouse-Optical-Mouse/dp/B00005TQ08/?tag=ttgnet-20
I did try one of the version 3.0 of the Microsoft Intellimouse Optical Mouse that I have stashed but it is too jumpy (higher res) and the buttons work different. The wheel is very stiff too.
Any advice ?
If you like anything, buy about 5 spares. You will eventually crater them all.
I suspect that it is time to go back to the old hard to manage firewalls that you had to have an account and password to get outside the org with. Of course, our double NAT is no good if you want to get outside from the inside.
Or insiders without a lot of technical knowledge buy the software and insist that the techies install the systems. In the case of SolarWinds customers, hookers and steaks marketing triumphed over all security measures.
I suspect a lot of organizations are looking for a magic bullet to avoid paying for the expertise from the upper ranks of Cisco’s certified engineer skill levels.
FireEye makes me wonder too. “Former Sun Microsystems management” is not an encouraging combination of words in a founder bio IMHO. Maybe not the early management, but the crew that ran the place into the ground in the early 2000s until the Oracle buyout.
@~jim:
Bittorrent is your friend. Ask me how I know.
G.
If you’ve got extremely good fine motor skills you can take apart the dinky switch under the button and bend the contact flap and clean the points. I’ve done it before. Woe betide you if the flap somersaults out when you open the case!
Naw, torrents aren’t worth the effort for just giggles.
Couple of Star Trek connections in _Flesh_! Bjo Trimble did the make-up and John Hoyt has a bit part.
@Lynn … there are settings in Win10 that you can use to adjust various mouse settings.
Hit the Window key, then type in ‘mouse’ to get to the “Mouse Settings” screen.
@Lynn … there are settings in Win10 that you can use to adjust various mouse settings.
Hit the Window key, then type in ‘mouse’ to get to the “Mouse Settings” screen.
Thanks, but I run Win7 x64 still and used those settings. Still jumpy though. I stole the mouse off the other file server and it is a little better than the first server mouse I stole. The wheel is still hard to move though and no setting to going to change that, it is a wear issue. The wheel on my original mouse almost has zero resistance due to the wear.
ADD: Typing “mouse” in the Windows Run box works ! But I do not have a Windows key on my keyboard as I am using a 1991 Northgate Gold Omni Key keyboard with the function keys on the left side for easier debugging.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Northgate-OMNIKEY-102-Keyboard-ALPS-MECHANICAL-SWITCH-KEYS-omni-key-/121793308628
After 30+ years of usage, my original Microsoft Intellimouse Optical Mouse is dying (giving double clicks for single clicks).
If you’ve got extremely good fine motor skills you can take apart the dinky switch under the button and bend the contact flap and clean the points. I’ve done it before. Woe betide you if the flap somersaults out when you open the case!
I’ve got very large hands (can palm a basketball side to side) and zero fine motor skills made worse by breaking three fingers over the years (both pinkies and left index).
I got the ‘Rona antibody test at Krogers yesterday. A simple finger prick, $25, and 15 minutes later, negative. I was so sure that I had the ‘Rona back in February, I was wrong.
Of course, the test reputedly has 20% false negatives. And 20% false positives.
After 30+ years of usage, my original Microsoft Intellimouse Optical Mouse is dying (giving double clicks for single clicks). I stole one of the same mouses off one of the file servers but it just does not feel the same.
My original Made in USA Logitech three button mouse went to Silicon Heaven about 10 years ago when the left click button mechanism cracked. $120 new in 1989, $80 on my Egghead Software Ponzi employee discount. I bought the mouse just to be able to play computer Harpoon.
I still don’t use an optical mouse since my primary desktop and server have PS/2 mouse and keyboard connections fed by a KVM.
Nuts:
https://www.neowin.net/news/kfc-reveals-the-kfconsole-a-gaming-pc-that-keeps-your-food-warm
Gaming should be assisted with cold beers…
Tyler Durden cowardice, but the word from Waffle House on the pandemic.
https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/waffle-house-ceo-no-evidence-covid-19-spread-across-2100-locations
I stopped with the outside lights several years ago. No one was interested except me.
Hmm. Can you still buy 7 watt bulbs?
I just had an idea. I use a 100 watt bulb in the pump house to keep the water softener above freezing. Ok, now I use a 75w because whatever.
But I could butcher a string of Christmas lights …. and have the bonus of still having some heat if a few burn out compared to nothing.
I mean, if I have a string of 12 bulbs and 4 a year burn out, I’m good for almost 15 years. Put the string on a dimmer and I’ll be good for 20 years. After that, heck, I’ll worry about it when I’m 83.
I’ve got twelve LED 14 watt (100 watt equiv) bulbs around the large office building and six around the small office building. I’ve got four LED 150 watt light fixtures around the warehouse and need to replace two more light fixtures outside the warehouse. Since the 150 watt was discontinued, I am now putting in the 200 watt.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077ZK6Q26/?tag=ttgnet-20
and
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B083TTBRQF/?tag=ttgnet-20
I did have a 300 watt heat lamp in the 10 ft by 10 ft pumphouse but it burned up. So now I just have a plain old 100 watt equivalent LED bulb (not much heat).
But the real question is were you able to get any Lysol wipes there?
But the real question is were you able to get any Lysol wipes there?
HEB near us had Lysol wipes yesterday. They are still out of Formula 409.
It’s long in part due to formatting. The format for bills that I have read in the past had:
– wide margins
– large typeface
– double spaced
– lots of indentation and the like.
It’s still loooooonnngg, but not like a 6000 page book would be.
In some people, the antibodies are undetectable after 3 months. So, you may well have had it. T-cells and B-cells seem to “remember” much longer. Unfortunately, there is no cheap test for them.
Nick’s gonna gripe if someone doesn’t mention 4272… 🙂
Where else can you see Ray Milland and Rosey Grier in that classic movie, _The Thing with Two Heads_ but on Flixfling.com?
https://www.flixfling.com/browse/scifi/subscription
I’m in absolute heaven over there!
“Achmed’s “Up on the Housetop Ode to 2020″ | JEFF DUNHAM”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykTSYyNnGxQ
The previous Achmed Christmas Special is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pH1Zaef7XXA
The following may be a problem in and of itself for Lets Encrypt:
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/12/lets-encrypt-comes-up-with-workaround-for-abandonware-android-devices/
But, if I read this correctly there is an issue of much more concern:
This implies that Certs are at Android level and not being periodically updated. I seem to recall a period of stolen Certs and everybody scrambling to kill specific Certs and/or Certification authorities. If phones older than 4 years are not being patched this is surely a beautiful way to wreck havoc at any point in time. (And then people complain because MS makes updates mandatory…).
Good video about positive predictive value, sensitivity, and specificity:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lG4VkPoG3ko
“Social Security Is A Mess: There Are 6 Million Active Accounts Of People Aged 112+”
https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/social-security-mess-there-are-6-million-active-social-security-numbers-people-are-people
“What they have uncovered is that last year alone, Social Security admitted to $8 billion in improper and mistaken payments.”
“The punchline: when they dug deeper, they found that there are six million active social security numbers of people aged 112 and older… even though only 40 or less or those people exist in the world.”
And those six million people 112 and older voted for Biden.
This implies that Certs are at Android level and not being periodically updated. I seem to recall a period of stolen Certs and everybody scrambling to kill specific Certs and/or Certification authorities. If phones older than 4 years are not being patched this is surely a beautiful way to wreck havoc at any point in time. (And then people complain because MS makes updates mandatory…).
Android updates are up to the manufacturer, and most lose interest after a year. Four years is a really long time to expect Samsung or Motorola to provide support in the form of updates.
If you root the phone, you can replace the CA store, but most people will want to run newer apps requiring a faster CPU anyway.
“The punchline: when they dug deeper, they found that there are six million active social security numbers of people aged 112 and older… even though only 40 or less or those people exist in the world.”
Grandma’s social security checks are an important part of a lot of household budgets. With the Boomers retiring with more limited benefits, public and private, *Great Grandma’s* checks are becoming important too.
Almost like the FBI is totally incompetent…
“Nick’s gonna gripe if someone doesn’t mention 4272… ”
—BASE 3 FTW!!
I’ve long thought it would be cool to build a trinary computer with yes, no, maybe as the states. I’m told that you can simulate this with binary computers, but in so many cases the simulation doesn’t match what really happens. Lots of stuff in real life is a probability rather than a certainty.
n
” Almost like the FBI is totally incompetent… ”
–I bet they’re next level at office politics, infighting, backstabbing, and arrogance…
n
Greg missed it by that much….
n
Precisely. That means that Android is an ongoing security hazard, not only for the unpatched device but for the rest of systems after that particular device is owned and used as a an attack unit.
Lol, see what teaching New Math does?
I bought this earlier this year: https://www.newegg.com/logitech-910-005728-g502-se-hero/p/N82E16826197353
It has a big metal scroll wheel on a good bearing. Absolutely amazing for scrolling through long documents. Resolution can be changed from a button and you can make the scroll wheel clicky if you like.
Usually I buy wireless mouses but this one was closer to $60 when I bought it and the wireless version is more like $150. (see how I didn’t start the sentence with “I” ! )
Oh Lordy! That *is* a classic!
Maybe a 2500 page book.
You guys and ladies know I’m not from the USA, but I pay my taxes and I think the bill is disgusting. It’s a porkulus disguised as a COVID relief bill. Trump should veto it and congress should take the billions allocated to museums and foreign governments, and give that money to taxpayers. Strip it down from 5500 pages to 20.
Bah bye!
n
The root cert store should be broken out as a system app from Google, only to be updated by Google, so that it can be pushed to older phones.
But, as Nick likes to point out, what they want isn’t the same as what you want.
Absolutely!
Also eliminate H1B visas instead of expanding them.
n
That’s how I got here. My H1B was really for a specialty occupation – I was the only person who had worked on the product who wasn’t already an employee of the company. They probably underpaid me, in retrospect.
@Nick
“–I bet they’re next level at office politics, infighting, backstabbing, and arrogance…”
You have seen Peter “Short-Stroke” and Lisa’s text messages?
Just legends in their own minds
Greg missed it by that much….
“Elon Musk claims he offered to sell Tesla to Apple for a TENTH of its current value during ‘darkest days’ for car maker – but CEO Tim Cook ‘refused to take the meeting’”
Hunh? I’ve believed for a long time that Apple and Toyota are waiting to pick apart the bones of Tesla in Bankruptcy Court. I’ve seen nothing to change my position.
Tim Cook doesn’t want to play second fiddle to Musk. If Apple’s board sniffed Tesla, Cook probably gave them an ultimatum about going back to Lenovo, whose supply chain infrastructure Cook built before being hired by Steve Jobs.
I remember you predicting that apple would buy tesla, iirc. Seems that musk wanted to sell…
n
@mark, that must have been long enough ago that the system was used as designed, instead of a way to get cheap slave labor.
n
I remember you predicting that apple would buy tesla, iirc. Seems that musk wanted to sell…
No. I’ve been consistent that Tim Cook was too smart to buy Tesla outside of a Bankruptcy auction, coordinated with Toyota.
Monday’s Apple announcement regarding cars was not an accident on the same day TSLA joined the S&P 500.
@mark, that must have been long enough ago that the system was used as designed, instead of a way to get cheap slave labor.
H1B has ALWAYS been about slave labor. It was initially in the 1970s and 1980s how companies in the USA got paid for sales in India since India did not allow cash to leave the country. South Afrikans and UK were underpaid by at least 30 to 40%. As soon as they got their residence visa, they were gone.
In the case of the Indians, they would put four of them in a one bedroom apartment. Eight in a two bedroom apartment. Their attitudes on crowding were very interesting.
“Nick’s gonna gripe if someone doesn’t mention 4272… ”
—BASE 3 FTW!!
I’ve long thought it would be cool to build a trinary computer with yes, no, maybe as the states. I’m told that you can simulate this with binary computers, but in so many cases the simulation doesn’t match what really happens. Lots of stuff in real life is a probability rather than a certainty.
n
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ternary_computer
The owner treated me pretty well but probably underpaid me. One of the senior guys stole my ideas and yelled at me in a physically threatening manner when I pointed it out. The departmental VP didn’t care as the guy who mistreated me had been there for years. I left when I had provisional permanent residency.
However, I got into the US, which was what I wanted.
“President Trump Calls on Congress to Redo COVID Relief Bill; Demands $2000 Payments to Americans”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/12/president-trump-calls-congress-redo-covid-relief-bill-demands-2000-payments-americans/
“President Trump gave an address Tuesday evening from the White House on the COVID relief bill in which he called on Congress to redo the $900 billion, 5593 pages long bill passed Monday night after months of negotiations by providing payments to Americans of $2000 per adult or $4000 per couple. The bill passed by the House and Senate contains payments of only $600 per adult American but giving up to $1800 for the families of illegal aliens married to American citizens. The address was posted to Twitter.”
“Trump read off a list of millions and billions of dollars in the bill designated for foreign nations and special interests, comparing that to the $600 for Americans. Trump also called on more relief for small businesses, especially restaurants.”
Donald Trump, You Rock ! ! !
“EXCLUSIVE: White House Memo Details How ‘Pence Card’ Can Save Trump’s Presidency On Dec 23”
https://nationalfile.com/exclusive-white-house-memo-details-how-pence-card-can-save-trumps-presidency-on-dec-23/
“A White House memo that details how Vice President Mike Pence is legally required to reject Electoral College votes from contested states.”
Wednesday could be interesting. But I doubt it.
And Toyota talking about next-gen battery technology:
https://electrek.co/2020/12/11/toyota-electric-car-solid-state-battery-10-min-fast-charging/
OFD would have had something to say about this–
–unless there is at least one, and really more like two zeros somehow missing from those numbers, there is something seriously wrong with German courts.
Not a whole lot of denial in that article either, so I’ll bet they were hoping to just pay and get off light before the floodgates opened.
n