Wed. Sept. 15, 2021 – well that was a big nothing burger, thankfully

By on September 15th, 2021 in ebay, personal, WuFlu

Cooler and humid, forecast calls for rain. Yesterday was cooler but pretty wet, with high humidity and occasional misty drizzle.

I got the yard raked up and all the small debris in a pile. We didn’t have any real ill effects, and most of the people we know were the same. We do have school friends that were without power, and two schools in the district will stay home today because they are still dark too, but we were fine.

After the cleanup, I did stuff in the house. Too dreary and humid outside. I put up two of the new child safety gates I got at auction. We have one room in the house that still has carpet, the sunken formal living room. We left the carpet for the kids when they were small and we use the room as a “play” room and library. The dog decided he likes pooping on carpet. So the child gates went back up until we can break what became a habit very quickly. I also gave up and got a “potty pad” of fake grass. We put it in a spot he’s picked to defile, and the plan is to move it outdoors gradually. I don’t think it’s gonna work, and I didn’t want to do anything that encourages or allows ‘going’ in the house, but I got overruled. I just buy the stuff.

I was also able to list some ebay stuff, and fix an electronic gadget that’s been on my list for a while. It was sitting on the freezer, and I need to clear off the freezer, and I thought I knew what the problem was, so I decided that today was the day. The main problem turned out to be corrosion on the power input jack, but I was able to reflow some sketchy looking solder joints, and clean up some moisture damage on the board. In any case I got it working and now I have a Logitech Squeezebox Boom to sell or more likely, use to listen to internet radio and streaming. It was the kind of project I like. It sat on my list for a long time, it got me something I wanted, and it moved from where it was just piled up, toward someplace useful. Three birds killed with one stone. Of course, it was a low priority thing that jumped the list but sometimes I just need to do that.

I also had one of the weird coincidences that seem to define my life happen. I picked up a big LG monitor for $2 because “it won’t stay on”. It would light up with the “nothing connected, going to sleep” message, but as soon as you connected a source to it, it shut off. Google said the wall wart psu was aging, and ailing, and replacing it should solve the issue. The connector is strange, so I didn’t have one in my bins. 19v, and has a center pin in the plug. The weird part is that Monday I stopped in Goodwill, looked in the box of power supplies, and FOUND ONE. $2 and it worked. Monitor now displays source material just fine. Wife will use it in her work from home station to make sure it keeps working, and then I may move it somewhere, put it with a system for sale, or just sell it. Weird that I got exactly the thing I needed, but that is how my life works.

I also looked at the UPSs and couldn’t find any reason why one PC would stay on while the other shut off. Both are in the ‘battery’ side of the box. And in the bedroom, everything is in the battery side as well, so I think it just wasn’t turned on. I did some cable cleanup and pulled my other old TiVO out of the bedroom. Put a new keyboard on the KODI box and got it back online. The youtube ‘add on’ is still fubar’d and I didn’t mess with it. I’ll just keep using the TiVO bolt for now. I’ve got an apple tv, and two roku boxes I could use, or one of several of the Kodi based streamers from china. I just need to mess with it and I don’t think it’s that important yet.

So I got some stuff done, but all stuff from down the list, and not critical stuff. My back felt better, so I really didn’t want to do a lot of physical activity. Today I’ll have to do better. Auction stuff, ebay stuff, and prep stuff. Joy.

I better get to it, ‘cuz those things aren’t gonna stack themselves…

nick

79 Comments and discussion on "Wed. Sept. 15, 2021 – well that was a big nothing burger, thankfully"

  1. Nick Flandrey says:

    71F and saturated this morning, all the surfaces are wet.

    Getting the kids up is harder today with the break in the week’s routine. Joy.

    n

  2. Nick Flandrey says:

    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/california-governor-newsom-projected-survive-recall-election-elder-topped-alternates

    –The black white supremacist never had a chance. At least he got slightly more votes than the number of recall petition signers.

    Not getting out of clown world by voting.

    n

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  3. Greg Norton says:

    “UK: E-car chargers will turn off to prevent blackouts”

    Do you know what a bait and switch is ? Man, does this look like one. Although, the switch is to have a non-functioning vehicle.

    The point of EVs is not to save the planet. The point is to control where/when you drive.

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  4. SteveF says:

    re puppy, I recall some years ago when the neighbor had a large dog which kept crapping on my lawn. The neighbor never cared much, not until he started finding poop on his own porch and walkway. That’s when he started yelling at the dog and keeping an eye on him when he went out. The dog was confused, because he wasn’t the one pooping on the porch.

    So, are you sure it’s the puppy pooping on the carpet?

    re power supplies with odd connectors, I have a couple of “universal” power supplies which put out adjustable voltage and which come with a dozen tips which handle most things that need DC power in.

    re limiting car charging hours, those of us who know anything about the electric power system could have predicted that. In fact, some of us did predict that.

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  5. Greg Norton says:

    I am not surprised. Building a VC++ app is hard. Building a VB6 app is not real hard, about medium I would say. 

    Visual Studio 6 is also the last release of Redmond’s compiler suite that could produce a “clean” C DLL which could dynamically link extra functionality into a program without worrying about specific MSVCRT build on both sides matching.

    VB6 made interfacing to C DLLs and the Win32 API very simple. OReilly even had a book which still brings decent money used. I sold my copy about a decade ago, and I regret that from time to time.

    Shrinkwrapped Visual Studio 6 still gets decent money in the secondary market too, but the big downside to the suite is that you don’t get what passed at Microsoft as C++03. And, IIRC, without the MSDN subscription, VB6 compiles to p-code.

  6. Greg Norton says:

    The connector is strange, so I didn’t have one in my bins. 19v, and has a center pin in the plug. The weird part is that Monday I stopped in Goodwill, looked in the box of power supplies, and FOUND ONE. $2 and it worked.

    Go back about seven years and a lot of cr*ppy flat screens from LG and Samsung were dumped on the US market via Sam’s/Costco for ~ $100.

    Most lacked HDMI and VESA mounting hardware which was a huge deal killer for long term use. When the time came to haul the display to Goodwill, it was real easy to forget that the power supply was separate.

    Pre-Covid, Austin had a specialty Goodwill which dealt with computers and peripherals.

  7. Nick Flandrey says:

    We’ve got several goodwill stores with either an attached “technology” store or a separate area inside the store for computers. The prices average around $150 for a complete system that originally ran win7.

    n

  8. Nick Flandrey says:

    Maybe this is why a drug used to treat lupus might be effective against wuflu?

    Is this what causes severe COVID-19? Study finds more than HALF of patients hospitalized with the virus develop ‘rogue antibodies’ that attacks their own body tissue

    More than half of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 develop ‘rogue antibodies’ that attack their own body tissues, a new study finds
    Stanford University researchers found similarities between the blood samples of about 200 Covid patients and patients with autoimmune conditions, like lupus
    About 20% of patients whose blood was taken multiple times developed these ‘rogue antibodies’ within their first week at the hospital
    ‘If you get sick enough from COVID-19 to end up in the hospital, you may not be out of the woods even after you recover,’ one of the researchers said
    Further study will further determine the links between these antibodies and severe Covid symptoms as well as possible links to long Covid

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-9990105/Study-finds-HALF-patients-hospitalized-COVID-19-develop-autoantibodies.html

    n

  9. Nick Flandrey says:

    There’s always someone willing to rat you out, even before they start with incentives.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9992037/Connecticut-mother-daughter-charged-Jan-6-riot-arrested.html

    Someone reportedly sent a screenshot of a Facebook post that featured photos taken as protesters stormed the Capitol

    Silly people, you thought you were still living in a country where you had personal freedom.

    n

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  10. Greg Norton says:

    My son has a first job working for Dominos boxing pizzas and washing dishes. Last night, the delivery times stretched to two hours due to lack of drivers so many customers cancelled. That’s just one store in the suburbs. Imagine the situation where the Joe Bucks checks make a serious difference in day-to-day living.

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  11. ITGuy1998 says:

    My son has a first job working for Dominos boxing pizzas and washing dishes. Last night, the delivery times stretched to two hours due to lack of drivers so many customers cancelled. That’s just one store in the suburbs. Imagine the situation where the Joe Bucks checks make a serious difference in day-to-day living.

    the labor situation in North AL is bad. Hiring signs are everywhere, and you can tell almost everyone is short staffed. The extra unemployment stopped in AL in July. I have a hard time believing that is what kept so many from going back to work. I read a story that stated the reason was all these workers were flush wih cash and didn’t need to go back to work yet. So let me get this straight. An adult who works in a minimum wage, or barely above job, always living paycheck to paycheck, suddenly gets a little more money on unemployment, and becomes a master saver and miser of their money? Really?

    I wonder what the real reason is. I think part of the issue is we just have too much retail and restaurants out there. We’ve been watching the retail apocalypse for a while now. I think the same thing is happening in dining.

    My son had intended to continue on with his first job in a fast casual restaurant during school this year. After his first week of school, he decided to quit. Senior year in HS and 4 AP classes. Since he doesn’t HAVE to work, I agree with his choice.

  12. Nick Flandrey says:

    I agree that there seems to be something else at work.

    The messaging is that people are desperate and in dire need of help, hence the handouts, but in the next news article, consumers are “flush with cash” and spending… or paying down credit unexpectedly. Those are opposites. Rare that you have both at the same time…

    Lots of hiring signs in Houston too, and not all in retail or food.

    n

  13. Alan says:

    Didn’t realize Tony was this far along…

    Inspiration4 Launch, 

    SpaceX is set to launch four private citizens into space today, beginning a three-day mission that will take them 360 miles above the Earth’s surface. The trip marks the first time in history an all-private crew will be put into orbit—54 private citizens have entered space, though always tagging along with military or professional crew members.

  14. ech says:

    I agree that there seems to be something else at work.

    There seem to be a number of factors at work:
    – the UI payouts
    – better jobs getting filled first
    – (this may be a big one) people don’t want to put up with bad working conditions and bad pay

    It will slowly get better, much like the current shipping logjams will get better in a couple of years.

    I talked with a local HEB produce stocker, mentioning their billboard on I-10 offering $15/hr and up for warehouse workers. He mentioned that he had occasionally been pulled out of the store to work at the warehouse.

     

  15. EdH says:

    –The black white supremacist never had a chance.

    Any more than Trump did.

    I think you’d need somewhere between a 25-50% margin to overcome the cheating.

     

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  16. pecancorner says:

    I wonder what the real reason is. I think part of the issue is we just have too much retail and restaurants out there. We’ve been watching the retail apocalypse for a while now. I think the same thing is happening in dining.

    There seem to be a number of factors at work:
    ….. – (this may be a big one) people don’t want to put up with bad working conditions and bad pay ……..I talked with a local HEB produce stocker, mentioning their billboard on I-10 offering $15/hr and up for warehouse workers. …

    $15 an hour in a city is an appalling low wage, unless they are guaranteeing 40 hours a week every week, with reliable schedules.  Just the cost of getting to work and home again will keep people from taking such a rate of pay for part time.   Restaurants in Austin pay that to dishwashers. The failure to provide enough hours to live on, and to give people a schedule they can build a life around, is the BIG ISSUE in those jobs. No matter what studies and polls say: people need to know they can have the same schedule their significant other has, they need to know what hours of what days they will work in order to arrange day care and other essentials of life. Companies that treat people like human beings will never have trouble filling jobs.

    Covid did allow a lot of people to take time to evaluate their lives. When it started, I was still on Facebook and I noticed masses of people using the lockdown to finalize steps to start their own businesses or expand.

    Around here, in both fast food and grocery stores, I notice that the Social Security set are no longer there. A lot of those people died of COVID, and others who thought they needed “something to do” have discovered they’ve plenty to do without the part-time job.

    After-school day care evaporated over the past year and a half. People who once would work the afternoon shift just for a little pocket money now need to be home to meet the school bus.  And some of those are keeping other people’s kids now instead of going to work for 20 hours a week.  And real happy doing so.

    The under-18s who usually work some of those jobs now benefit from the child stimulous payments, just as young parents do. Like ITguy’s son, many have decided to take the opportunity to focus on school.

  17. nick flandrey says:

    Huh, craigslist flake – flaked.   Who could have predicted that?  Hmm.

    I learned never to order my day around a craigslist buyer.

    n

  18. drwilliams says:

    The biggest problem with wages is the benefits disparity between part-time and full-time. A federal requirement to pro-rate benefits coupled with a state-run mechanism to allow workers to aggregate benefits from several jobs would have been more beneficial than any minimum wage and kept the disparity between part and full time from widening. It probably would have reduced the cash economy and prevented the Obamacare debacle.

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  19. lynn says:

    My son has a first job working for Dominos boxing pizzas and washing dishes. Last night, the delivery times stretched to two hours due to lack of drivers so many customers cancelled. That’s just one store in the suburbs. Imagine the situation where the Joe Bucks checks make a serious difference in day-to-day living.

    I always drive over to our Dominos to get our stuff since it is only three miles away. There is a railroad tracks between us so Dominos charges extra to deliver our stuff due to train delays.

  20. lynn says:

    The biggest problem with wages is the benefits disparity between part-time and full-time. A federal requirement to pro-rate benefits coupled with a state-run mechanism to allow workers to aggregate benefits from several jobs would have been more beneficial than any minimum wage and kept the disparity between part and full time from widening. It probably would have reduced the cash economy and prevented the Obamacare debacle.

    Just what I need, more federal regulations and costs on how to run my business.

  21. lynn says:

    BTW, we lost power Monday night at about 2 am due to our subdivision losing power to high wind gusts to 90+ mph when hurricane Nicholas went over us. The new generator started up and ran for 8 to 9 hours until the grid power came back on at 11 am. We did not even know the generator was running since it is so quiet (liquid cooled instead of lawn mower in a box). I am 100% satisfied.
    https://www.winsim.com/generator_corner_finish.jpg

    The generator now says that it will need maintenance in 780 more hours of running. I guess that it ran for 8 to 9 hours, I have no idea.

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  22. lynn says:

    “How employer branding can help you attract talent”
    https://hrpreneur.podbean.com/e/how-employer-branding-can-help-you-attract-talent

    The first time I read this, my mind changed the word employer to employee. I thought what in the world !

  23. Greg Norton says:

    BTW, we lost power Monday night at about 2 am due to our subdivision losing power to high wind gusts to 90+ mph when hurricane Nicholas went over us. The new generator started up and ran for 8 to 9 hours until the grid power came back on at 11 am. We did not even know the generator was running since it is so quiet (liquid cooled instead of lawn mower in a box). I am 100% satisfied.

    How many people in your neighborhood also have a generator like that?

    You don’t want to be all lit up like Wild Adventures and surrounded by the heat, humidity, and desolation of post-Apocalypse Valdosta as in the last reel of “Zombieland”.

    Kill the porch lights.

  24. lynn says:

    BTW, we lost power Monday night at about 2 am due to our subdivision losing power to high wind gusts to 90+ mph when hurricane Nicholas went over us. The new generator started up and ran for 8 to 9 hours until the grid power came back on at 11 am. We did not even know the generator was running since it is so quiet (liquid cooled instead of lawn mower in a box). I am 100% satisfied.

    How many people in your neighborhood also have a generator like that?

    You don’t want to be all lit up like Wild Adventures and surrounded by heat, humidity, and desolation as in the last reel of “Zombieland”.

    About half of my neighbors (400+ homes) have generators. Mostly lawnmowers in a box. Very noisy.

  25. Greg Norton says:

    Dave is awfully confident with the caller, but my guess is his company is exactly who Plugs has in mind for one of the first OSHA Hut-Hut-Hut enforcement actions once the vaccine mandate rule is published and enough time passes for the courts to start ruling.

    The lawsuits can’t even proceed to the first level challenge until the rule is published.

    I’m not a regular listener to the radio show, but I can’t imagine Ramsey let last Thursday go without more comment than what was contained in the clip.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nkG1vX3M4g

  26. lynn says:

    Kill the porch lights.

    I have got the porch light switch taped ON. It is the only light that we run at night.

    My neighbor two houses west is lit up like an amusement park. He has an 8,000 ft2 house, a 1,500 ft2 garage with a 1,500 ft2 employee barracks above it, a large swimming pool, and a full size basketball / tennis court with two goals. LED floodlights all over the place including his ten+ parking spots in front of his house.

  27. MrAtoz says:

    I’m sure you have all seen the news about Gen. Milley going behind tRump’s back. He even admitted it. plugs supports him 100% (the other way around would have been a “constitutional crisis” for the Dumbocrats). Also heard Milley called Pelosi. In the old days, Milley’s sword wouldn’t have even been broken, he’d be hung for treason.

    This is Obola’s pussyfication of the military. It is complete and the military is commanded by perfumed princes. Milley’s treason and the Afghan debacle is proof. Not a shot fired, except the dead troops in Afghanistan, to Marxify the entire military. No wonder several senior military offices are resigning.

    I haven’t recommended the military as an option for youngsters I talk to for several years, now. I’m sure there are still good people in the military service, but they will never reach the top under people like plugs and Obola.

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  28. MrAtoz says:

    I’m in the hotel room at the 12 Tribes casino between Omak and Okanogan, WA, while MrsAtoz earns sweet goobermint bucks from the Bridgeport school district. Currently72ºF but in the low 50’s last night.

    I have to echo Mr. Nick’s comment about the Met and VMA boondoggles. There is something wrong, festering, in our country. People always have their kinks, but when it is a main stream acceptable way of like, we have a large carbunckle on the country’s arse.

  29. MrAtoz says:

    This is why journalism is dead in the FUSA:

    See if you can spot the subtle differences between TIME’s ‘Most Influential People’ profiles of Donald Trump and Xi Jinping [screenshots]

    The ProgLibTurds praise China and disparage an American President. The ghosts of Obola and plugs (soon to die from advanced dementia) will come back with harsh punishments for our children. Our kids will inherit this madness. We will be dead when The Hunger Games start.

  30. Greg Norton says:

    I’m in the hotel room at the 12 Tribes casino between Omak and Okanogan, WA, while MrsAtoz earns sweet goobermint bucks from the Bridgeport school district. Currently72ºF but in the low 50’s last night.

    In a state filled with locations that qualify as “boonies”, that’s really out there.

    Which reminds me — any recent updates from DadCooks?

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  31. Alan says:

    The biggest problem with wages is the benefits disparity between part-time and full-time. A federal requirement to pro-rate benefits coupled with a state-run mechanism to allow workers to aggregate benefits from several jobs would have been more beneficial than any minimum wage and kept the disparity between part and full time from widening. It probably would have reduced the cash economy and prevented the Obamacare debacle.

    Do you really think that the lobbyists for any of the major fast food or drive-thru coffee companies would let something like this happen?

  32. Alan says:

    Which reminds me — any recent updates from DadCooks?

    Or from Harold?

  33. pecancorner says:

    Why we love HEB.  “Free online cooking classes”

    How to make Oktoberfest pretzels and four different kinds of dip, recipes already on the page.

    https://www.heb.com/static-page/heb-virtual-classes#id=oktoberfest

  34. Marcelo says:

    It sat on my list for a long time, it got me something I wanted, and it moved from where it was just piled up, toward someplace useful.

    Is that someplace useful the pile of useful stuff?

  35. Greg Norton says:

    How to make Oktoberfest pretzels and four different kinds of dip, recipes already on the page.

    The baking soda boil will work, but food grade lye is the key to getting the taste/external texture right for pretzels.

    However, kids, as always, the Mythbusters are professionals — don’t try it at home.

    Wurstfest is still on for early November in New Braunfels. The last one we attended in 2019 was overrun with newly-arrived members of the Locust Class, but maybe they will stay home this year.

  36. lynn says:

    BTW, we lost power Monday night at about 2 am due to our subdivision losing power to high wind gusts to 90+ mph when hurricane Nicholas went over us. The new generator started up and ran for 8 to 9 hours until the grid power came back on at 11 am. We did not even know the generator was running since it is so quiet (liquid cooled instead of lawn mower in a box). I am 100% satisfied.
    https://www.winsim.com/generator_corner_finish.jpg

    The generator now says that it will need maintenance in 780 more hours of running. I guess that it ran for 8 to 9 hours, I have no idea.

    Many of my neighbors (not our subdivision though) are still without power today and getting warm: house, refrigerators, and freezers. Apparently one neighborhood had several of their power transformers short circuit.

  37. lynn says:

    “Mesa Airlines is looking forward to electric regional aircraft”
    https://simpleflying.com/mesa-excited-heart-aerospace/

    “US regional carrier, Mesa Airlines, is excited to fly Heart Aerospace’s 19-seat electric aircraft. Billed as the world’s first electric regional aircraft, Mesa could fly up to 100 planes, with the first coming in 2026, assuming all goes well with the building and certification of the aircraft. Mesa’s CEO, Jonathan Ornstein, is excited about the opportunities the aircraft will reopen in commercial aviation.”

    Um, no.

  38. nick flandrey says:

    the pile of useful stuff?

    –I’m listening to it right now.   Electroswing on Pandora.  There is some way to link my siriusXM stream to it, but I haven’t poked at it enough yet.  I think there is a 2 step  process instead of it getting the stream directly.  Less than ideal.. Sounds great though.

    n

  39. nick flandrey says:

    Been longer than a year since  Miles Teg checked in.

    n

  40. MrAtoz says:

    “Mesa Airlines is looking forward to electric regional aircraft”

    Did they discover some type of super battery to power their planes? I wonder what the recharge turn around time is. Maybe one flight per day. Geez, it’ll be sweet flying on unicorn farts, ’cause electricity is expensive.

  41. lynn says:

    “T-Mobile Data Breach”
    https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2021/08/t-mobile-data-breach.html

    “It’s a big one:
    As first reported by Motherboard on Sunday, someone on the dark web claims to have obtained the data of 100 million from T-Mobile’s servers and is selling a portion of it on an underground forum for 6 bitcoin, about $280,000. The trove includes not only names, phone numbers, and physical addresses but also more sensitive data like social security numbers, driver’s license information, and IMEI numbers, unique identifiers tied to each mobile device. Motherboard confirmed that samples of the data “contained accurate information on T-Mobile customers.””
    https://www.vice.com/en/article/akg8wg/tmobile-investigating-customer-data-breach-100-million

    Oh my. My wife and daughter are on Tmobile.

    Welcome to the future. Not as bright and shiny as I thought it would be. Reminds me of the movie “Tomorrowland”.

  42. MrAtoz says:

    When you lose ProgLibTurd darling Vindman, Milley should be *gulping* right about now:

    ‘It’s an extremely dangerous precedent, you can’t simply walk away from that’: Retired Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman leads ex-military leaders calling on Gen. Milley to resign if he told China he’d send warning if US was planning to attack

    Milley should retire now and get his CNN gig for 2024. Maybe he’ll run against plugs in 2024, if plugs makes it.

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  43. lynn says:

    “Mesa Airlines is looking forward to electric regional aircraft”

    Did they discover some type of super battery to power their planes? I wonder what the recharge turn around time is. Maybe one flight per day. Geez, it’ll be sweet flying on unicorn farts, ’cause electricity is expensive.

    Probably a generator in the back of the plane running on JP8. “snicker”.

    Can you imagine what happens if the battery has a dead short ? Maybe there are four batteries, one for each electric motor, with no cross connections.

  44. MrAtoz says:

    plugs is buttering up Sinema and Manchin. I bet they roll over when the pork offers start rolling in. The Treasury took in $3.5 trillion so far this year. Hmmm, I wonder what politi-turds can spend it on?

  45. lynn says:

    plugs is buttering up Sinema and Manchin. I bet they roll over when the pork offers start rolling in. The Treasury took in $3.5 trillion so far this year. Hmmm, I wonder what politi-turds can spend it on?

    They spent $6 trillion this year already. I thought that the House Budget committee was on crack when they talked about $2 trillion budget gaps a couple of years ago. Turns out they were pikers.

  46. drwilliams says:

    “We will be dead when The Hunger Games start. ”

    Yeah, but someone will inherit my toy collection.

  47. Greg Norton says:

    “Mesa Airlines is looking forward to electric regional aircraft”

    Um, no.

    Can we first see a demo the size of a Piper Cub?

  48. lynn says:

    “Mesa Airlines is looking forward to electric regional aircraft”

    Did they discover some type of super battery to power their planes? I wonder what the recharge turn around time is. Maybe one flight per day. Geez, it’ll be sweet flying on unicorn farts, ’cause electricity is expensive.

    I wish I could ask my engineering mentor back in 1982 to 1987 what he thought of this boondoggle. He and another Aggie copilot flew a stripped B-17 in 1943 from Fort Worth, Texas to Maine to Newfoundland to Greenland to Iceland to Scotland to London, England. They had the wing tanks plus several dozen 5 gallon jerry cans in the bomb bay, pouring gasoline as fast as they could in those wing tanks. They were shot down on their second trip over Germany and spent 18 months in a German POW camp. I could never watch the Hogans’s Heros show again after he told me stories of the POW camp that he walked out of in 1945 weighing 108 lbs (he was 6’4″).

  49. pecancorner says:

    The trove includes not only names, phone numbers, and physical addresses…

    In my neck of the woods, a trove of those three items  is called “the phone book”, and they throw one for free to every house in town.  Yep, we are in it.

    also more sensitive data like social security numbers, driver’s license information, and IMEI numbers, unique identifiers tied to each mobile device.

    Until companies (and government agencies) are made liable – really liable with big payouts to every individual affected – for allowing data to escape, this will continue on and on and on and on.   Or maybe companies could stop using personal information  as identifiers, and switch instead to some novel concept like: a customer id number.  There’s no reason at all for a phone company to have my SS number or my DL number.

    I wish I could ask my engineering mentor back in 1982 to 1987 what he thought of this boondoggle. He and another Aggie copilot flew a stripped B-17 in 1943 from Fort Worth, Texas to Maine to Newfoundland to Greenland to Iceland to Scotland to London, England. They had the wing tanks plus several dozen 5 gallon jerry cans in the bomb bay, pouring gasoline as fast as they could in those wing tanks. They were shot down on their second trip over Germany and spent 18 months in a German POW camp. I could never watch the Hogans’s Heros show again after he told me stories of the POW camp that he walked out of in 1945 weighing 108 lbs (he was 6’4″).

    We need a “Respect” emoji. Or a “Salute” one.   A thumb’s up doesn’t seem to be enough for an exploit like this one.

     

  50. Ray Thompson says:

    I see where Pfizer, who stands to make billions on a third injection, is stating everyone needs a third injection. All those surprised raise your hands.

  51. Greg Norton says:

    I see where Pfizer, who stands to make billions on a third injection, is stating everyone needs a third injection. All those surprised raise your hands.

    With FDA approval, providers will be able to charge for the third Pfizer shot if you don’t want to wait for your booster to arrive at CVS.

    Per my wife, the VA is out of Pfizer … or, at least, was when the issue came up for me briefly last week.

    I joked that I wanted a Sputnik shot, but that is two separate injections and I wouldn’t have been “fully vaccinated” if I had landed the job and turned in two weeks notice.

  52. Greg Norton says:

    “T-Mobile Data Breach”

    Oh my. My wife and daughter are on Tmobile.

    Welcome to the future. Not as bright and shiny as I thought it would be. Reminds me of the movie “Tomorrowland”.

    Cr*p. I’m on T-Mobile.

    My wife’s cousin, Number Two Son, is in security/customer service at T-Mobile. I’ve posted about him before. He sits out in their data center in Snoqualmie watching pirated movies the team keeps stored on servers within the corporate network.

    Number One Uncle wrote a $60k check for Number Two Son to have a PD MBA from University of Washtington. The kid didn’t even last the morning at his first “real” management job once the execs realized that they had been scammed in the interview.

    They walked him to the door at lunchtime.

  53. lynn says:

    I see where Pfizer, who stands to make billions on a third injection, is stating everyone needs a third injection. All those surprised raise your hands.

    My parents got the booster shot a month ago. They got their first injection last December.

    Dad and I were going to Jerry’s World* to watch TAMU beat the hell out of Arkansas in a week and half with 100,000+ of our closest friends. He just turned me down, too many people, so we are going to watch on TV. Dad is 83 and fairly mobile still.

    * Jerry’s World in Arlington, Texas
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT%26T_Stadium

  54. lynn says:

    I see where Pfizer, who stands to make billions on a third injection, is stating everyone needs a third injection. All those surprised raise your hands.

    With FDA approval, providers will be able to charge for the third Pfizer shot if you don’t want to wait for your booster to arrive at CVS.

    Per my wife, the VA is out of Pfizer … or, at least, was when the issue came up for me briefly last week.

    I joked that I wanted a Sputnik shot, but that is two separate injections and I wouldn’t have been “fully vaccinated” if I had landed the job and turned in two weeks notice.

    Sputnik ???

    Do you let your wife inject you ? You better not torque her off.

  55. drwilliams says:

    [redacted]

  56. SteveF says:

    Wow. drwilliams must have a really filthy mouth. My language is hardly suitable for children but I’ve never had my comment redacted. For shame, drwilliams! Or else Hold your head high, drwilliams!

  57. JimB says:

    That comment about Miles Teg reminds me. I would appreciate it if folks here could pass along any really good tips they have on finding phone numbers and addresses for long lost people. Email might be nice, too. We all have our methods. Mine is

    https://www.zabasearch.com

    which can be pretty good for older information.

    And, yes, I have read a bit about searching for this kind of information, but often the searches are polluted by those sites that promise lots of stuff for just a little cash. From what I have read, they are not worth anything, so I have never tried any.

    Finally, for desperate people, I have read that a private investigator can be worthwhile, and not very expensive. I have never wanted to find anyone that much. Fun topic.

    Oh, I hope Miles and other missing folks (Chuck Waggoner?) are still OK.

  58. Alan says:

    BTW, we lost power Monday night at about 2 am due to our subdivision losing power to high wind gusts to 90+ mph when hurricane Nicholas went over us. The new generator started up and ran for 8 to 9 hours until the grid power came back on at 11 am. We did not even know the generator was running since it is so quiet (liquid cooled instead of lawn mower in a box). I am 100% satisfied.

    How many people in your neighborhood also have a generator like that?

    You don’t want to be all lit up like Wild Adventures and surrounded by the heat, humidity, and desolation of post-Apocalypse Valdosta as in the last reel of “Zombieland”.

    Kill the porch lights.

    @lynn, Is your gennie visible from your street? If so, maybe plant some shrubs around ii so it’s not so obvious?

  59. ~jim says:

    I would appreciate it if folks here could pass along any really good tips they have on finding phone numbers and addresses for long lost people.

    Resurrecting lost flames is an exercise in nostalgia. And nost-algia literally means pain of the past, so why would you want to resurrect it unless you are a masochist?

    Lol, that reminds me of Thomas Wolfe. To my mind he’s one of the greatest, if not *the* greatest authors of American literature. _You Can’t Go Home Again_.

  60. Greg Norton says:

    Sputnik ???

    Do you let your wife inject you ? You better not torque her off.

    Sputnik is one of the four (?) Russian vaccines. IIRC, it was the first they developed.

    My wife gives me the occasional Decadron shot, Z-packs, and stitches, but I have a separate doctor since she left private practice and I got worried about heart issues earlier this year.

    If I had landed the job last week, I was going to get J&J at the VA under the family plan I mentioned when you wanted to get your daughter that shot. The VA has a stash.

  61. ~jim says:

    If I had landed the job last week, I was going to get J&J at the VA under the family plan I mentioned when you wanted to get your daughter that shot.

    Thanks for sharing, Greg. I, for one, am breathlessly awaiting further tales of “What might have been.”

  62. JimB says:

    Not lost flames, but hmm…

    No! I am very happy.

  63. nick flandrey says:

    Funny, I had the sudden desire to see what a high school friend was doing last month.

    I spent about a half hour, and she has almost zero online presence. ONE picture that is possibly with a daughter, so only coincidentally online.

    Weird that someone my age has nothing at all…

    n

  64. Alan says:

    However, kids, as always, the Mythbusters are professionals — don’t try it at home.

    New team of Mythbusters, on the Motor Trend streaming channel only.

    https://www.motortrend.com/news/motor-mythbusters-series-premiere/

  65. Alan says:

    Didn’t realize Tony was this far along…

    Inspiration4 Launch,

    SpaceX is set to launch four private citizens into space today, beginning a three-day mission that will take them 360 miles above the Earth’s surface. The trip marks the first time in history an all-private crew will be put into orbit—54 private citizens have entered space, though always tagging along with military or professional crew members.

    I guess at some point in our past this wouldn’t have been so routine.

    “The launch pad at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida was dramatically illuminated with spotlights against the night sky, and when the SpaceX rocket’s nine engines fired up just after 8 pm ET it flooded the surrounding wetlands with a blaze of light as it soared into the upper atmosphere and made a dramatic, ghostly light show overhead. After reaching orbital speeds — more than 17,000 miles per hour — the capsule carrying the four passengers detached from the rocket and began to maneuver toward its intended orbit.”

    According to one government report, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule costs roughly $55 million per seat.

    https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/15/tech/spacex-inspiration-4-space-tourism-mission-launch-scn/index.html

  66. nick flandrey says:

    The Mythbusters team used to have some weird blind spots. You don’t know what you don’t know I guess.

    I remember one ep in particular, they were looking at safety shoes, and completely missed that there was a whole class of shoe above the one they were testing, and that there are add on guards for regular safety toe shoes to address the issues they raised. Metatarsal protectors, I think they are called.

    All the research they did, they never called a safety shoe store…or industrial hygienist.

    n

  67. nick flandrey says:

    In all the world, there’s nothing so queer as folks….

    There is a youtuber I watch who makes vacuum tubes from scratch, nixie tubes, and repairs old radios. He’s in Houston somewhere, and used to only make vids in the winter because of the heat.

    At some point he retired from his normal job and started making more content. And also decided to start living his secret life in the open.

    He’s a classic cross dresser, with a penchant for 40s and 50s frocks… his comment section went apeshit for a while, but it’s almost universally complementary now. Glasslinger.

    One other weird thing, he gets almost as many views as subscribers. Usually there are vastly more subs than views on popular specialty channels (when people sub to support the channel but don’t watch all the vids), or far more views than subs, when the algorithm is sending views your way.

    n

  68. Alan says:

    There’s no reason at all for a phone company to have my SS number or my DL number.

    Actually, at least in their minds, there is. If your cellphone plan is “Post Paid” then you get billed at the end of the month (or whatever is your billing period) for service you’ve already used so in effect extending you credit and if you don’t pay your bill they want your info so they can attempt to collect (a debt) from you. Same scenario if they sell you a fancy new iPhone for only 24 convenient monthly payments, if you stop paying they still want the rest of their money. (Not sure they’re big into repo-ing phones though.)

    If you don’t want to share your info, get a “Pre Paid” plan where you buy minutes/data blocks in advance and load those onto a phone. And BYOP or buy one at Wally World. Last I checked heard from a friend, you can still go into WW and anonymously (except for the CCTV) buy a prepaid phone and airtime cards, paying cash.

    Similar to the postpaid scenario is why you’ll frequently find medical professionals asking for your SSN and a copy of your DL. When you don’t pay any co-insurance you get billed for, eventually it will go to a collection agency. Your prerogative not to give it to them, theirs to not treat you if you don’t. You’ll also hear around to give them a fake number, (Google will find you legit numbers that are permanemtly not issued) as not something they will usually verify. But consider the scenario of being in the middle of a course of treatment if you are called out on it.

  69. JimB says:

    …or industrial hygienist.

    Ah. An old friend of the family was one of those. What a catchall title, depending on the industry. In this case, it was a huge solution and surface mining operation. You might imagine the perils of that kind of plant. Some accidents were spectacular; fortunately, very few. Death was a daily possibility. The workers were skilled and careful, but the hazards were everywhere. There is only so much that guards can cover.

  70. Nick Flandrey says:

    Peter brings some threads together in this and his followup post.

    https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2021/09/our-crumbling-supply-chain-and-what-it.html

    Fuel for the unbelievers.
    n

  71. lynn says:

    @lynn, Is your gennie visible from your street? If so, maybe plant some shrubs around ii so it’s not so obvious?

    Not from my street which is the main street for our subdivision. We are the thirteenth house away from our entrance. But it is visible from the street behind us until I build a mother-in-law house behind the garage or somebody builds a house in the empty lot cattycorner to me. I am not worried, the generator weighs 1,500 lbs. It took three guys to get it behind the garage with three sheets of plywood and a pallet jack. And it is behind my fence.

  72. lynn says:

    “A.F. Branco Cartoon – Oh, the Terror”
    https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-oh-the-terror/

    “G.W. Bush spoke out against Trump supporters at the 9/11 ceremony lumping them in with Islamic Terrorism. Political cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2021.”

    George W. Bush has turned into an asshole in his later years. I wonder if he is drinking again ?

  73. lynn says:

    Peter brings some threads together in this and his followup post.

    https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2021/09/our-crumbling-supply-chain-and-what-it.html

    Fuel for the unbelievers.
    n

    Commment:
    “Engine remanufacturing has been a very viable commercial option for decades. AER down in Carrolton is one of the biggest around. $8K to repower a truck beats $60K+ for a new one regardless of current supply problems.
    BTW You left out tires. With inflation rampant you might want to look at them now rather than later.”

    The wife got new Michelin tires for her 2019 Highlander on Monday due to a blowout a week and a half ago. Tires took a week to show up.

    I got new tires for my 2019 F-150 4×4 today since I had a 1,000 mile trip planned next week. That just fell through but I still am going 500 miles round trip next week. Two of my tires had tread bars showing. Took four days to get tires and I could NOT get the top end Michelins that I wanted with one inch of tread.

    And my son had a blowout in his 2020 Camry last night in a Houston pothole. He put some “cheap” Pirellis on for only $550 at Sam’s Club while I was there so he could use my card.

    If you want Pirellis or Goodyears, Sams Club has plenty. If you want Michelins, good luck. I have no idea if Costco is better or not. I checked on the truck tires I wanted at Discount Tire, they were backordered there also and skyhigh price.

  74. JimB says:

    I have read that April and October are popular months for tire sales, but I have not seen it personally.

    I buy tires and install them myself. My sources vary, and are always mail order. I also rarely wear the tread lower than half depth before age or road hazards cause replacement. One bad tire, and I replace all four, unless they are near new, in which case I replace two.

    Truly a situation where YMMV. 🙂

  75. brad says:

    Well, that was fun.

    I was installing some absolutely ordinary updates yesterday. Rebooted. Login window comes up, but the mouse and keyboard are completely inactive. Being as this is Linux, it was possible to boot into a command-line mode, where I could try various things, including uninstalling the last update. No joy. As soon as the graphical interface is up, no keyboard, no mouse.

    Of course, this was just an hour before I needed my computer. I tend to re-install everything every 2-3 years, because cruft accumulates, but I leave the previous installation intact and use a new partition. So I still had my old install that I last used in 2018. But…what was my password? I keep a list of previous passwords, and about the 10th or 12th try worked. Whew…just in time…

    So today I’ve been setting up a shiny new installation, with the latest versions of everything. It was due anyway, but it’s still not how I planned to spend the morning…

    There are also always new obstacles. For example, one piece of software, for which I purchased a permanent license, now requires an “activation code” in addition to the license key. Which I have to get by logging into my account. Only, when I bought the license, they didn’t *have* accounts. So, email to customer support: WTF?

    I had to rant to someone, and y’all were elected. Now back to your regular programming…

    Number One Uncle wrote a $60k check for Number Two Son to have a PD MBA from University of Washtington. The kid didn’t even last the morning at his first “real” management job once the execs realized that they had been scammed in the interview.

    Dare we ask how they realized it that quickly? He must’ve done something pretty egregious. Enquiring minds want to know!

    Funny, I had the sudden desire to see what a high school friend was doing last month.

    I had an old friend whom I have occasionally tried to track down. Zero success. I figure she probably got married and changed her name, but still: I know when she was born, what schools she went to, where she worked, etc, etc.. Being as she was also in IT, you’d expect some mention somewhere, but…nothing. Weird.

  76. Nick Flandrey says:

    Perhaps our friends went into one of the 3 letter agencies?

    n

  77. brad says:

    Perhaps our friends went into one of the 3 letter agencies?

    I honestly hadn’t thought of that, but it’s entirely possible. She was military, with a graduate degree in IT. Definitely not impossible…

  78. TV says:

    Funny, I had the sudden desire to see what a high school friend was doing last month.

    I had an old friend whom I have occasionally tried to track down. Zero success. I figure she probably got married and changed her name, but still: I know when she was born, what schools she went to, where she worked, etc, etc.. Being as she was also in IT, you’d expect some mention somewhere, but…nothing. Weird.

    Weird, but not uncommon. I have 7 cousins in one family (from one uncle). Only one of them has any presence at all on the Internet, and that is for their business. No Facebook or other social media. Intentionally old smartphones (apple model 3?) that won’t access Facebook. They just don’t care about the internet and mostly don’t use it unless it is for work. Of course, that behavior does not apply to their kids.

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