Fri. Mar. 19, 2021 – Friday already? Week zipped by…

Cool to cold, clear, sunny.  Yesterday was blue sky, sunny, and yet cool and windy.  A great day to dry things out.  I’m hoping for more of the same and that is what the national forecast calls for.   It’d be nice if they were right.

Yesterday was another low achievement day.  Household stuff.   Groceries.   Messing around in the office.   Kids were home and wife was at the office, so I was parent in charge.  That means poking them to eat, dress, go outside, etc. instead of just playing Minecraft.   I thought about it today, and thought, if that’s really how they want to spend Spring Break, then let them enjoy the time.  They have other days when they knock off a whole book, or spend several hours playing with toys in their rooms.

Another reason for me to take it easy is I tweaked something in my knee.  I felt it tear, and it hurts for certain motions.  I’m going to be really careful for the next  few days.  I don’t think it was very bad, there isn’t any bruising or constant pain, but I know I did something.   This getting older is a b!tch.  Although, truth be told, I’ve been tearing up my knees most of my life.  This is  nothing new.

I didn’t buy any red meat or pork this grocery order.   The only thing reasonable was sirloin and I’m full up on that.  When I’m ordering I have costco open in one tab, and HEB in another, and I compare between them.   Costco was REALLY cheaper on a bunch of items this week.   Kings Hawaiian rolls, english muffins, choice ribeye steaks, all almost 25% lower than HEB and HEB has the lowest prices of our major groceries.  The bread was almost 40% lower at Costco.  HEB was cheaper for chicken drums and thighs, but only by pennies and I like the Costco vac pack better than repacking it myself, so Costco won on chicken too.  Prices on meat have been all over the place for the last year.  I don’t know if that means anything other than supply issues, but it’s been difficult to budget.  The freezers let me buy in bulk when it’s cheap and wait out the higher prices though, saving me money in the long run.

I’ve got an electrician coming by this afternoon to look at hooking up the whole house gennie.   Turns out he’s a guy I know, one of the dads  from the pool.  I think of him as a solar power guy, so I didn’t even consider calling him about the gennie.   Good thing I’ve got a smart wife 😉  I don’t know if he’ll be up for the job, he usually works for other companies, but he can answer some questions for me, and give me a better idea of the scope and cost involved.

It would be great to get it installed and running.  I have a feeling that if things proceed as they have in the past, we can expect services to degrade in quality.  Water, electricity, trash collection, policing, and general public works like graffiti removal and debris pickup should all decline.  I believe I’m already seeing more illegal dumping, more graffiti, and more roadside infrastructure damage than before.  It’s taking longer to fix issues, and the fixes are often just to remove the broken stuff without replacing it.  I’m seeing more vacant commercial and retail real estate too.

Before I meet with the electrician,  I’ve got errands to run and pickups to do.   At one auction I got a couple of nice high dollar items to resell, that should move quickly, the other was stuff for the house and eventual lake house.   I realized that I’m buying more and more of my total outlay in the secondary market.  I’m not spending any significant money in stores or with the big online sellers (other than food and grocery store items.)  We didn’t do any real back to school shopping either, nor have we done clothes shopping for the girls.   My wife isn’t buying clothes, haircuts, or shoes because she hasn’t been in to the office much.  If even a fraction of other households are like ours, it doesn’t bode well for an economy built on consumer spending.

That said, I’m still spending money.  Just not as much as I might, and not in the places other people do.

Consider what it might mean if other households are making the same changes you are making.  We are rarely so smart, prescient, or unique as we think, others will be doing whatever we are doing.   If it becomes a trend, what will that affect in the bigger world?

With that in mind, what do you need to be stacking?  Get you some of that, and stack it high.

nick

 

 

60 Comments and discussion on "Fri. Mar. 19, 2021 – Friday already? Week zipped by…"

  1. Greg Norton says:

    “The Decline of Fry’s Electronics…What Happened?”

    Find Retail Archeology’s coverage of Fry’s on YouTube. He called it over a year ago, possibly before then. I haven’t gone too far back into the RA archives.

    It is easy to blame the Brown Truck Mall and Food Court (TM), but Fry’s situation is a lot more complicated. Anytime I went into the Austin store after something specific, I left empty handed, even with easy things like thumb drives.

  2. Greg Norton says:

    Dan Bongino will replace Rush Limbaugh in *some* markets but not everywhere. Yesterday’s announcement originated with Westwood One and was a strategic PR strike.

    https://www.chron.com/entertainment/article/Dan-Bongino-tapped-for-national-afternoon-radio-16035397.php

  3. Pecancorner says:

    We knew to respect XXXX fear the border agents. Mostly the US ones, as I recall. They would tear apart one car just about every day to keep the proles in fear. OTOH, we knew to be polite and truthful, and never have or attempt to hide anything illegal

    .

    Corb Lund 😀
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5S00y75ebq8

  4. Pecancorner says:

    Anytime I went into the Austin store after something specific, I left empty handed, even with easy things like thumb drives.

    This is a growing problem. ​ On Tuesday, my dad needed lug nuts for his little mule. This is not a hobby vehicle: he uses it daily to feed his cattle and calves and horses. We went to the Kawasaki dealer while we were in Abilene. Nice big building. They don’t keep his lug nuts in stock. Not only did they have to order them, they told him it would be 10 days before he gets them in the mail. Why go to that store ever again?

    ​Part of the problem is corporate floor-planning & JIT Inventory strategies, but part also is caused by the state’s tax grabbing. ​The Texas legislature needs to nullify “rendition” taxes on inventory, and make it easy for stores to keep products in stock.

  5. Nick Flandrey says:

    Ok, 48F is a bit cooler than I was hoping. It is sunny and blue sky though, so that’s a plus.

    n

  6. Nick Flandrey says:

    Yes, the state taxing me on the same plywood countertop every year makes NO sense. I paid tax on the materials. I paid tax on the labor to build it. I’d even pay tax on it once, as sort of a VAT, but the same table, or fixture, or tool, taxed every single year, just discourages owning the stuff, and is nonsense from a business standpoint. That stuff depreciates every year not appreciates. But the Tax Board will double your assessment as if it was all made from bitcoin.

    n

  7. Nick Flandrey says:

    The global supply chain remains “stretched thin,” with Ford Motor Company announcing Thursday evening that it will continue to build its top-selling F-150 trucks and Edge SUVs without certain parts, according to CNBC, quoting a Ford spokeswoman.

    The spokeswoman said the automaker would continue building the F-150 and Edge models for “several weeks” without specific semiconductor components. When those chips are made available, the vehicles, expected to be “in the thousands,” will have workers install the chips.

    –presumably they mean ‘install whatever part the chips come in’ since I don’t think there are any bare chips installed during build… but looks like supply chain is top of mind again.

    n

  8. ech says:

    There is a version of the Harvard Classics for Kindle that is $1.99. I got one and it compares well to my hardback set.

  9. SteveF says:

    The only content difference I’ve noticed between the ebook and the paper versions of the Harvard Classics is that the ebook does not have the page introducing each book or each author within the series. This isn’t a huge deal, as we can look them up on the internet.

  10. Lynn says:

    It would be great to get it installed and running. I have a feeling that if things proceed as they have in the past, we can expect services to degrade in quality. Water, electricity, trash collection, policing, and general public works like graffiti removal and debris pickup should all decline.

    The big problem is electricity and water. Within 2 to 3 years, Texas will be 100% wind turbines for about 40 to 50% of the time, nighttime. Wind turbines are not stable and the grid will start flexing. I do not think that the nukes will be able to stabilize the grid by themselves. We will find out.

    So, as a consequence, the grid will only be somewhat stable from 32 F to 100 F. If you want continuous power at your home and office, you will need to get an automated generation system like all of the third world uses.

    BTW, those big electric driven pumps that large cities use, you get one start per hour due to the 3X current inrush of the 45 second start. One interruption and you are restarting.

  11. Lynn says:

    –presumably they mean ‘install whatever part the chips come in’ since I don’t think there are any bare chips installed during build… but looks like supply chain is top of mind again.

    Ford uses a 64 bit PowerPC system for their EMS, engine management system. I cannot belive that these are in short supply as IBM was selling these for a couple of dollars each. Apparently, somebody is arbitraging the silicon base wafers which there is a genuine shortage of due to covid lockdowns.

  12. lynn says:

    Consider what it might mean if other households are making the same changes you are making. We are rarely so smart, prescient, or unique as we think, others will be doing whatever we are doing. If it becomes a trend, what will that affect in the bigger world?

    It means that everyone knows that we are becoming a third world country and are making plans for that. Independent power generation, etc. The big problem is clean pressurized water, those cisterns do not stay clean on their own.

    I would really like to add a battery option that filters and can run the house demand for a minute while the generator is starting and getting stable they do not have that option yet. I will add when the time comes. In fact, I may add some solar power to the house some day just for grins.

    BTW, be sure to insulate your home to cut your power demand. You may have to supply that power using a limited generation option in the future. My triple pane with the plastic laminate windows in the house are noise limiting, hurricane proof, and very efficient.

  13. lynn says:

    “Mean presidential Tweets didn’t bother me”
    https://gunfreezone.net/mean-presidential-tweets-didnt-bother-me/

    Yup, Biden has hired a bunch of people who are not able to do their jobs. Trump hired and fired until he found the right person to do the job.

    Biden falls three times going up the Air Farce One Ramp ? Good night, did he not get his 18 hour nap yesterday ?

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  14. MrAtoz says:

    Biden falls three times going up the Air Farce One Ramp ? Good night, did he not get his 18 hour nap yesterday ?

    I’m waiting for the Lame Stream Media to question plugs’ health like they did when tRump held a glass of water with two hands, or, when he took a ramp instead of stairs.

    I’ll be waiting a long time, I bet.

  15. lynn says:

    “Do We Not Have Enough Enemies? By Patrick J. Buchanan
    https://buchanan.org/blog/do-we-not-have-enough-enemies-143716

    “Asked bluntly by ABC’s George Stephanopoulos if he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin is “a killer,” Joe Biden answered, “Uh, I do.””

    “Biden added that he once told Putin to his face that he had “no soul.””

    Biden is a crazy old man who is not aware of the times. We have troops in over 60 countries. He wants to add a few more.

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  16. lynn says:

    We knew to respect XXXX fear the border agents. Mostly the US ones, as I recall. They would tear apart one car just about every day to keep the proles in fear. OTOH, we knew to be polite and truthful, and never have or attempt to hide anything illegal

    .

    Corb Lund
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5S00y75ebq8

    That is freaking awesome !

    I am heading to Victoria and then Port Lavaca in a couple for a weekend with the folks. I may put a Bible on the dash for those straightaways in my 4×4 when I might be going faster than 75 mph. Of course, you gotta be careful right now, the rice farmers are getting out with their 8×8 tractors on the interstate so I don’t drive faster than my brakes.

  17. lynn says:

    “Is this payback for becoming a Crimson Red State?”
    https://gunfreezone.net/is-this-payback-for-becoming-a-crimson-red-state/

    “Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has taken heat over his COVID-19 vaccine roll out by Florida Democrats because they believe that he has not done enough to vaccinate all Floridians, even though vaccines being distributed by the federal government have been slow to arrive. But now Gov. DeSantis is warning that the supply of vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson has dried up, and there will not be any vaccines being shipped to Florida for several weeks, possibly even longer. Yet the Biden administration is sending vaccines to Mexico.”

    You have got to be kidding me ! We designed, ordered, and paid for those vaccines here in the USA. Biden is the worst president ever !

    I have been thinking about getting the J&J since it is a single shot. That single shot may be advantageous if the feddies suddenly cut the vaccine supply to the entire South (including Texas !).

  18. Ray Thompson says:

    Biden falls three times going up the Air Farce One Ramp

    Notice in the video that Biden is attempting to “sprint” up the steps. This is probably a coached event to make him look younger, healthier, then he is in reality. That is a stupid move on his part and his handlers.

    Biden pulled that same stunt in one of the videos before the election was certified. More in an effort to indicate that his was going to be hitting the ground running. He trotted out behind some barricade up to the microphone with the backdrop of “Office of The President Elect” behind him, there being no such office.

    The media and his handlers are doing all they can to make Biden look less senile, decrepit, and feeble than Biden really has become.

    This entire Biden fiasco is being carefully handled. Limited public speaking for good reason. Attempts to show youth rather than old age. Wisdom rather than dementia. Health rather than lame old man. Speaking carefully controlled with teleprompters. Questions required beforehand of any scenario.

    Joe Biden is not fit to be president, mentally or physically.

  19. Alan says:

    They don’t keep his lug nuts in stock. Not only did they have to order them, they told him it would be 10 days before he gets them in the mail. Why go to that store ever again?

    Don’t, because…Amazon.

  20. Chad says:

    Don’t be surprised if the prog-strokin’ MSM calls out Biden’s health. I think they’re salivating at the opportunity to have a minority woman as President.

  21. Ray Thompson says:

    Biden is the worst president ever

    You are just viewing from one perspective. For Mexico, Mexicans and illegal aliens Joe Biden is the best president ever. Who will vote for him and the democrats in the future.

  22. SteveF says:

    Joe Biden is not fit to be president, mentally or physically.

    Or morally.

    Cryin’ shame that he’s infesting the white house after not being (honestly) elected as President.

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  23. Alan says:

    This entire Biden fiasco is being carefully handled. Limited public speaking for good reason.

    Even the MSM gets it once in a while. Earlier today Uncle Joe exited the WH(?) and passed by the press rope line who were shouting questions as usual. He stopped and answered a few and then moved on. Later on CNN one of their ‘coming up after the break’ teasers was “Biden answers reporters’ questions for 49 seconds.”

  24. Alan says:

    My triple pane with the plastic laminate windows in the house are noise limiting, hurricane proof, and very efficient.

    Lead projectile proof too?

  25. JimB says:

    Corb Lund

    Thanks, Pecancorner. Good one. I have never heard of the bible on the dash trick, only some things to avoid. Another good thing is supposedly one of the traditional fireman’s “Leatherhead” helmet decals, preferably with a local company reference. I had a relative who was a police officer, and he had many friends in the fire department. All of them had that decal on their cars. I never thought to ask for one back then. Bet I could just go to one of the local firehouses and get one, although I don’t see the decals around here. Getting the right start on a traffic stop can be good.

    As for amusing music videos, I have always liked Ray Stevens. Many people forget he does serious stuff in addition to his funny stuff.

    Ray’ serious side:
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sv8hx5Pesow

    Traditionally funny. Ray’s Quarantine song:
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qtjceaknzHQ

    And who can forget Weird Al. Word Crimes, with rich images:
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8Gv0H-vPoDc

    Al also does killer polka medleys.

  26. Brad says:

    They don’t keep his lug nuts in stock. Not only did they have to order them, they told him it would be 10 days before he gets them in the mail.

    Our car popped up with a warning about the ABS. The garage worked us into their schedule for the next morning at 10:00. Found the problem, ordered the part, which arrived at 15:00 that afternoon. Picked the car up at 16:30. That’s how JIT is supposed to work. 10 days is ridiculous.

    insulate your home to cut your power demand

    This. Be sensible, insulate what makes sense. In our old house, we cut our heating costs by 50% and greatly increased the comfort level. Did the work myself, over a few years…

  27. Greg Norton says:

    Ford uses a 64 bit PowerPC system for their EMS, engine management system. I cannot belive that these are in short supply as IBM was selling these for a couple of dollars each. Apparently, somebody is arbitraging the silicon base wafers which there is a genuine shortage of due to covid lockdowns.

    Nodules for wafers are a commodity item, but larger size diameters require more advanced processes to “grow” the crystals.

    Process yields must be lousy right now with the push into single digit nm architectures. Lousy yields mean bigger wafers.

    I haven’t even looked at the math for 30 years, when sub-micron was a big deal.

  28. Chad says:

    I got a letter in the mail from the VA today telling me about “COVID-19 Vaccination Early Distribution.” So, I called. I can, being under 65 with no real pre-existing conditions, go get the Pfizer jab as early as tomorrow morning at the local VA Medical Center. They said their schedule is wide-open.

  29. Greg Norton says:

    “Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has taken heat over his COVID-19 vaccine roll out by Florida Democrats because they believe that he has not done enough to vaccinate all Floridians, even though vaccines being distributed by the federal government have been slow to arrive. But now Gov. DeSantis is warning that the supply of vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson has dried up, and there will not be any vaccines being shipped to Florida for several weeks, possibly even longer. Yet the Biden administration is sending vaccines to Mexico.”

    You have got to be kidding me ! We designed, ordered, and paid for those vaccines here in the USA. Biden is the worst president ever !

    The US sent the stockpile of AstraZenica vaccine to Mexico and Canada since it isn’t approved for use in this country and approval was hasty in Europe.

    The CNN piece praising DeSantis earlier in the week didn’t help Florida’s case at the White House. To be fair, with the Dems, the media, and the FL Republican establishment against him, DeSantis had nothing to lose by rolling the dice and not keeping Florida locked down. Smart guy, but he got very lucky. He’ll probably get reelected barring something unforseen happening.

    In general, from what we’ve seen, Florida isn’t as wide open as the media portrays, but no one was masked on Cabbage Key today with the exception of the restaurant staff. We sat out back, behind the kitchen and away from the crowds.

  30. paul says:

    Most of my order from Wal-Mart arrived today. FedEx can go to hell. “Home Delivery” or “Ground Delivery” REALLY should be more than dumping my package(s) at the gate.

    And it’s not the gate, they did this routine when the gate opener was broken for a couple of years. Great job to toss a memory foam mattress almost the size of a 40 gallon water heater in the ditch by the road.
    Could be worse, could have been raining.

    Today, not even at the gate. Thirty feet back, just over the cattle guard.

    UPS knows how to push the button to open the gate. Amazon figures it out about half the time.

    Wally World has improved their packaging a lot. The dented cans will get eaten first. I don’t know if shipping dented the cans. For example, I ordered two six packs of Hunts Diced Tomatoes. Both in the same shipping box. One box was perfect, the other had every can dented. Warehouse, I think.

    Well, inventory tomorrow and make another order before the end of March. Yep, if Discover is giving 5% Cashback….

  31. Jenny says:

    Rooster counted coup on husband last night. Today he is in the fridge.

    I’d hoped to wait until the eggs in the incubator hatched however vicious animals are not tolerated.
    Eggs should hatch Sunday / Monday. I’ll hold eggs laid between now and then. Fertile eggs will be laid for a few more days due to chicken biology.

    It was very cold out. The old house has had a lot moved. So I threw on a movie and plucked him in my lap in the living room. -laughter-

  32. JimB says:

    Today he is in the fridge.

    Should set an example, but I think you only have one rooster at a time. Maybe the hens will tell the new rooster to behave. 😉

  33. ~jim says:

    Could be worse, could have been raining.

    Lol. Surely you’re joking.

  34. Grandpa says:

    Nick, I ran across some information that may be useful to folks that read this blog.
    https://www.libertyandfinance.com/2016/10/24/real-money-gold-silver/
    At this link scroll down to the interview with Alasdair Macleod titled “Outsiders to rob us of our property”. If you can’t listen to the whole 47 minutes, pick it up at about the 36 minute mark and listen to the end.

    Macleod explains why everyone should have some silver and gold on hand to be truly prepared.

  35. Jenny says:

    @jimb
    We will take a rooster break at the new place. Not legal in our town, we got away with it at the old place because we had developed a relationship with neighbors. Plus they were very tolerant. It’ll be a few years of building relationships and gauging the mood in our new neighborhood before we let any males we hatch to live after their first cockadoodledoo.

  36. Alan says:

    https://dw.com/p/3qqw2?maca=en-gk-volltext-newsstand-sci-tech-en-20113-xml-googlenews

    “No, no, the blood clot deaths are just coincidental…”
    .
    Scientists at Greifswald teaching hospital claim they have discovered the cause of blood clots among a small number of AstraZeneca vaccine recipients.

    The success was a result of cooperation between the Greifswald hospital, state health regulator the Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI), as well as doctors in Austria — a nurse there died from thrombosis in the brain after being vaccinated with the AstraZeneca jab.
    https://p.dw.com/p/3qqw2

  37. Nightraker says:

    https://www.libertyandfinance.com/2016/10/24/real-money-gold-silver/
    At this link scroll down to the interview with Alasdair Macleod titled “Outsiders to rob us of our property”. If you can’t listen to the whole 47 minutes, pick it up at about the 36 minute mark and listen to the end.

    Macleod gives a reasoned, historically based rationale for the death of fiat in his position as researcher for GoldMoney.com. His many articles are worth reading, or sometimes slogging through. Even weighing his obvious self interest by his sponsorship, his calm and step by step thinking is hair raising.

    GoldMoney, based on the Isle of Man, used to have a debit card connected to one’s precious metal holdings in their vaults. You loaded it when you sold some of your PM for local currency. Unfortunately, it was regulated out of existence for Americans.

  38. drwilliams says:

    I still have one landline. Am thinking about a new msg for the answering machine:

    “Hello, you have reached a non-working number. I do not want to sell my house. My political opinions are my own. I support my local law enforcement, and don’t contribute to paid fundraisers out of state. If you’re calling from India about my Microsoft Windows, please be advised that your mother, little sister, and little brother all [censored]. If you need anything else, please look near Uranus.”

    Lot’s more could go in, but there’s a balance with length.

  39. SteveF says:

    drwilliams, instead of saying it’s a non-working number, use the three tones which indicate a not-in-service number. Then lay on the insults for anyone (or any bot) who doesn’t immediately hang up.

  40. JimB says:

    I still have one landline.

    So do I. I use Google Voice for long distance because I have a no-features landline. I find it very handy for some other things, where I need to give out a working number but don’t want to give my landline number. I have incoming voice mails transcribed to emails. When those were getting to be several a day, and I didn’t need to actually receive calls, I changed my outgoing message to two minutes of silence. Works like magic. Voice mail on GV can’t be disabled. I can always change it to ring one of my other numbers if I need to receive a call. That is rare.

    GV has many uses, including the ability to get several numbers for different purposes. If one gets spammed, just abandon it. Great “free” service. If you need more advanced features, other services are better, but not free.

    My only problem is some people who try to call me back on that number if I leave them a message. Apparently they do some sort of dial back to the calling number. I try to explain that the number I called from is for outgoing calls only, and is not answered. Most don’t understand it. Others do. How hard can it be to simply call the number in their contacts?

  41. drwilliams says:

    @SteveF
    I’ve thought about that, but if it rings I may as well waste their time. “This mailbox has not been set up.”

  42. Nick Flandrey says:

    Thanks Grandpa and welcome.

    –I actually answered a call today that my phone labeled a ‘spam risk’ but I was sitting right there anyway, so… I went ahead and answered because it was showing as an 888 number, not just a local exchange. Turned out to be my electric company trying to get me to change plans. Nope, don’t want to sign a 3 year contract with fees and termination penalties to save a couple of cents. My variable rate currently moves between 7c/kwh and 11c/kwh. Way I figure it, if they are offering it to me, it must benefit them. They have all the historical data and the spreadsheet jockeys…

    n

  43. Nick Flandrey says:

    I wonder if my linux mint system file management thinks I’m out of disk space because I have too many files?

    I just went thru the week’s video folders and deleted about 300K files… according to the manager. Is there an upper limit to the number of files on native linux formatted disks?

    n

    nope, guess not, or at least after deleting those files the system still thinks there is no room left on my primary drive. When I reboot though, there will be ~500GB of free space.

  44. Nick Flandrey says:

    Disk usage analyzer thinks I have 1tb used with 11.4tb free across the main and big second drive but doesn’t count the third drive, but the file manager thinks I have no free space. (in /home/[username]) and sees free space on the second drive and the third…

    Whenever this happens, and I try to open anything, I get a message about ‘can’t update recent apps list’ no space left on disk.

    There is space on the disk, and if I reboot the same file manager will show how much.

    n

    added– yep 450gb free and the only difference was rebooting. Nothing in the /tmp folder before reboot was too big or out of the ordinary either.

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  45. Marcelo says:

    nope, guess not, or at least after deleting those files the system still thinks there is no room left on my primary drive. When I reboot though, there will be ~500GB of free space.

    That is because you do not do Right-Click Shift+Delete, right? Or was that another system?

  46. Greg Norton says:

    I just went thru the week’s video folders and deleted about 300K files… according to the manager. Is there an upper limit to the number of files on native linux formatted disks?

    I assume you’re using ext3. Generally, the number of files can’t exceed the number of blocks, listed in the output of various disk utilities … dumpe2fs?

    Or is the file system holding the video files still NTFS? NTFS is still a work in progress on Linux.

    If you recover 500 MB after rebooting the system, it sounds like the DVR software writes a lot of data to /tmp.

    Is /home on / or its own partition?

  47. Nick Flandrey says:

    When I delete files I delete them with shift delete. No wimpy recycle bin for me. Trashes are empty according to the file manager.

    The main drive 1 tb and the main data drive were both formatted by mint during the install so both should be whatever the linux default is now.

    /tmp only had a few files and a couple of empty folders before reboot.

    dumpe2fs must have the drive unmounted, if I do that the os will bork won’t it? it’s the drive the os is installed on…

    n

  48. Nick Flandrey says:

    Is /home on / or its own partition?

    –default install, so / I guess

    n

  49. JimB says:

    Nick, if your disks are formatted ext3, change them to ext4. I can’t remember why, but i had some problems solved. My recollection was speed, not the kind you are having, but might help. Pretty easy on a system where you want to periodically purge.

  50. Nick Flandrey says:

    Ok, found the command that lists the disks and formats.. they are ext4

    n

  51. Nick Flandrey says:

    Wife, kids, and guest child are in the front yard watching the new Tom and Jerry movie with the projector and screen. There is a fire in the mini-chiminea and marshmellows have been toasted. 52F ad 62%RH so the fire is welcome.

    n

  52. Mark+W says:

    @Nick, Unix/Linux handles files very differently than Windows. There are 2 important counters.

    One is the link count. When you create a file, the link count is 1. You can “hard-link” the file in another location, which is giving the file another name. That increments the link count. Now the file has 2 filenames. You can now delete the original “file” (really you’re removing one of its filenames) but it stays on disk because the link count was 2 and is now 1.

    Second is the in-memory open count. Every time the file is opened, the open count increases. When the file is closed, the link count decreases.

    The point: a file is only actually deleted when both counts go to zero. You can delete all the hard links to a file but it doesn’t get deleted from disk if the open count is >0. Shutdown/Reboot sets the open count for every file to 0 and that’s when your file really gets deleted.

    If you delete all the filenames but keep the file open, then the system crashes, the space remains in use and can’t be freed until you fsck the filesystem.

    Your issue is probably with the open count.

  53. Nick Flandrey says:

    “Your issue is probably with the open count. ”

    –that explanation makes sense, at least as a coherent whole. I can’t judge if it makes sense as applied 🙂 If that is the case though, I’m guessing program bug, because the only file I delete after reboot is the cups error log file. If I don’t delete it, it will grow to consume the disk space available, and pretty quickly too.

    I usually don’t proactively delete the video files until I see that new files aren’t being written. but that will give me something to pay attention to.

    Is there a tool that would show if that is the case?

    n

  54. Mark+W says:

    There may be an “lsof” command – List Open Files.

    I think your problem is:
    a) log files eating up disk space – I can help with this
    b) the DVR not deleting old recordings. May be related to “a”.

    I’ll dig up the config changes tomorrow.

    Post “df -H”

  55. nick flandrey says:

    nickf@dell-nvr:~$ df -H
    Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
    udev 8.4G 0 8.4G 0% /dev
    tmpfs 1.7G 1.7M 1.7G 1% /run
    /dev/sda1 492G 63G 404G 14% /
    tmpfs 8.4G 38M 8.4G 1% /dev/shm
    tmpfs 5.3M 4.1k 5.3M 1% /run/lock
    tmpfs 8.4G 0 8.4G 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
    /dev/sdc2 4.1T 505G 3.5T 13% /mnt/C266C66766C65C33
    tmpfs 1.7G 33k 1.7G 1% /run/user/1000
    /dev/sdb1 8.0T 135G 7.5T 2% /media/nickf/NVR-DATA

    ————————–
    sda1=half tb main disk, exf4 has os, I mistakenly thought it was a 1TB in the previous comments
    sdc2=4TB “backup” drive, NTFS only occasionally used
    sdb1=8TB “data” drive with the NVR video files exf4

    –well, that looks like a dogs breakfast after the template strips outthe whitespace….

    any help gratefully accepted

    n

  56. Nick Flandrey says:

    Hmmm, the comment widget thinks I’m a different person when I comment from the other box, I can’t edit when I reload the page on my main box.

    Names and emails are the same… I thought.

    n

    oops, I see the diff in the caps

  57. Lynn says:

    My triple pane with the plastic laminate windows in the house are noise limiting, hurricane proof, and very efficient.

    Lead projectile proof too?

    .22 – yes.
    .38 – maybe.
    .44 mag – no freaking way.

    I was shooting my s&w 629 at the open range halfway to nicks house. I started with .44 specials and then moved to .44 magnums. I had never shot a .44 mag before. I fired the first round and this foot long fireball comes out of the six barrel along with a hellacious boom. The guy shooting a 9 mm next to me recoils to the side about a foot, picks up his stuff and moves a couple of shooting positions away. I apologized and shot the other five rounds. He waited until I was done.

    I still have half of that box of .44 mags. Somewhere. I’ve got at least ten boxes of .44 specials. Much easier on me.

  58. Lynn says:

    Rooster counted coup on husband last night. Today he is in the fridge

    Both my parents grew up with chickens. They laughed when I read this to them.

  59. Lynn says:

    Saw “The Little Things” at Victoria Cinemark with Dad this afternoon. Denzel Washington is awesome as usual. Movie was a little disconcerting. Los Angeles in 1988 or so. The cars and scenery was very well done.
    https://imdb.com/title/tt10016180/mediaviewer/rm4039561985?ref_=m_tt_ov_i

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