Fri. Nov. 12, 2021 – all out of fox to give

By on November 12th, 2021 in culture, ebay, personal, prepping, WuFlu

Cool and hopefully clear. We got some good rain yesterday but after it stopped everything dried out. We got more than an inch in about an hour at my house. Sun came out, the humidity was down, and it turned into a really nice day.

I sold a couple of items, so I had shipping to do. Listed a few smalls to keep the ball rolling. Sorted a couple of bags of inventory. Messed around with the parts truck a little bit (tried putting a battery on it to start it. Battery terminals have been removed so I shelved that for now.) There are a few parts I can grab, even if I sell it ‘whole’ to the repair shop. I need some switches from the doors and steering wheel. I also sprayed the interior liberally with anti-mold spray. I’ll get the switches today or this weekend.

This weekend. Busy again. Non-prepping hobby meeting and one day swap meet on Saturday. Wife and oldest off to GS camp for “Intro to rifle shooting” while youngest stays home with me. And somewhere in there I have to do a set of drawings to figure out what I am doing with all the new gear at my client’s house, which I’m supposed to spend next week installing. All the normal weekend stuff needs to happen too. Joy.

Daughter 1’s first theater show opened last night. Proud papa! Stage crew rocks! I’ll be helping with teardown tonight after the show. The show is a one act musical adaptation of the Junie B stories. It was pretty cute, and the kids did a pretty good job. I didn’t bring hearing protection, but I should have. WAY over mic’d and amplified. D1 says “they need the mics because they can’t project”. I say, “They’ll never learn to project if they have mics.” You can make an argument that because everyone uses mics, the kids should learn how to use them, but I argue that that MUST come after they learn to do it without a pile of gear. Kids today. We didn’t have mics and we survived. Bah.

I’ve got a couple of non-prepping hobby related pickups today, and hopefully at least a couple of bins to drop off. And a vet visit with the hamster late in the afternoon. He’s got a bare patch, that is swollen up like a nickel sized blister, with a couple of lumps in it. He’s eating and active, doesn’t flinch when you touch it, but it’s ugly. I guess were gonna spend some money to find out if Fluffy is ok or not. The wife and I agree that hamsters do not get expensive surgical interventions. That’s the current plan anyway.

Life proceeds as if everything was normal. It clearly is not, but we want the kids to have as much as possible, for as long as possible, a normal life. And if it never goes pear shaped, they had their childhood. We do talk about the issues though, and we had a lesson on percentages and inflation, and food prices at the dinner table the other night. D1 instantly understood that when I said, ‘we might be eating a lot of rice and pasta with a whole lot less meat for dinner’ that there were a lot of people that wouldn’t even have that. I’m getting a whole lot less “you have too much food” nonsense lately too.

“Laugh-a while you can, Monkey Boy!”

And stack while you can.

nick

62 Comments and discussion on "Fri. Nov. 12, 2021 – all out of fox to give"

  1. Nick Flandrey says:

    48F and damp with NOAA saying cool today and cooler thru the weekend. 

    Clear would be nice.

    n

  2. drwilliams says:

    It’s that time of year when the pecking order at the tv station is most obvious: the lowest get set out to find snowflakes. 

  3. Greg Norton says:

    It’s that time of year when the pecking order at the tv station is most obvious: the lowest get set out to find snowflakes. 

    Sweeps. In Portland it meant putting the weekend weather personality in her tightest down jacket and sending her up to Timberline Lodge. Don’t forget a shot of the boots.

    For those wondering why the name sounds familiar, Timberline stood in for the Colorado hotel in the opening of the Jack Nicholson version of "The Shining". Management didn't want people booking the room number, however, so the writers changed it to one that didn't exist at the resort.

    Here in Austin, for the last two years, sweeps means Covid fear mongering. The turkey “shortage” reports started last night on local Faux News.

  4. Ray Thompson says:

    @Ray, have you considered Global Entry? $100 for 5 years

    I have. But I am just too damn cheap to pay for the privilege of entering my own country. $200.00 for the two of us. We don't fly enough to make it worthwhile. Once every couple of years to Europe, thus about $80.00 for one trip. I can stand in line for an hour for $80.00. Showing my veteran ID and passport I have always gotten TSA Precheck so no real benefit there.

    I am retired and no longer travel by plane if I can make the trip in two days or less. The hassles of the airports, baggage fees, jammed into an aluminum tube for a couple hours, rental car, etc. is no longer worth. Time is no longer an issue.

  5. Bruce Friend says:

    However, it does answer the question of what to do with undesirables. The moon can be the new Australia!

    Isn't that the premise of RHH's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress?

  6. MrAtoz says:

    I have Global Entry and it was great coming back from Grenada. It took me 15 minutes to clear Customs. MrsAtoz didn't have it and two hours later finally made it through. Then COVID hit and International travel died. We are tentative for a gig in Jamaica next year, so I will renew if the 5 years is up. MrsAtoz is 67 and says she wants to keep doing what she does for another 5 years. Ugh, that means I have to. The goobermints keep doling out the bucks, so work could be endless.

  7. Nick Flandrey says:

    and with a headline that should surprise no one….

    Biden’s broken promise: Build Back Better will force 30% of middle class families to pay higher taxes – breaking president’s vow to only tax the super-rich, analysis finds

    Tax Policy Center analysis finds some middle class taxpayers would pay more
    Increases would be modest, and the average household would not pay more
    But Biden has vowed nobody making under $400,000 would see an increase
    His spending bill is currently being scored by Congressional Budget Office

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10193863/Bidens-Build-Better-make-30-middle-class-families-pay-higher-taxes-analysis-finds.html

    n

    500 error

  8. Mark W says:

    Being a registered Alien, I have had the Global Entry card almost since it first came out. It really saves time entering the country, and shortens the time with the Immigration staff. It also gets you pre-check. 110% worth the $100.

  9. Nick Flandrey says:

    Iran-backed Houthi Rebels stormed US embassy in Yemen and seized at least 25 Yemeni staff hostages and files: State Department demands release of staff

    • Iran-backed Houthi fighters kidnapped at least 25 people linked to the United States embassy in Yemen, according to local reports from the region
    • The State Department told DailyMail.com that a majority have been set free but that the US 'has been unceasing in its diplomatic efforts' to rescue the rest
    • Houthi rebels took 'large quantities of equipment' from the embassy in Sana'a
    • The compound was shut down in 2015 over security concerns but it appears that Yemeni security forces were still on the ground guarding it
    • Since then fighting has continued into its seventh year, killing thousands 
  10. MrAtoz says:

    Everyone knows plugs' State Department if filled with LBGTQWERTY spineless dolts. How soon before we send pallets of cash?

  11. MrAtoz says:

    Currently charging all my eGO batteries off the Jackery 2000.

  12. Greg Norton says:

    and with a headline that should surprise no one….

    Biden’s broken promise: Build Back Better will force 30% of middle class families to pay higher taxes – breaking president’s vow to only tax the super-rich, analysis finds

    The super-rich in NY, NJ, CA and other high tax states are getting the SALT deduction cap lifted as part of BBB.

    The Chinese inlaws pay $27k just in property taxes alone in CA.

  13. lynn says:

    ""The Moon Has Enough Oxygen to Sustain Billions of People Buried Beneath Its Surface"

    Ah, the quality of modern journalism. Apparently, these people no longer learn how to write, and the publications no longer bother with editors.

    However, it does answer the question of what to do with undesirables. The moon can be the new Australia!"

    Isn't that the premise of RHH's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress?

    Yes, Robert A. Heinlein's 1966 award winning magnum opus !  Definitely inspired by the Australian penal colony but with such ground breaking ideas of farming on the Moon in caves with grow lights and mined water, and a self aware computer.

       https://www.amazon.com/Moon-Harsh-Mistress-Robert-Heinlein/dp/0440001358//p?tag=ttgnet-20

    Although, I prefer "Citizen Of The Galaxy" and "The Starbeast" just a little bit more.

  14. Greg Norton says:

    It doesn't fit the goobermint's tyrannical narrative:

    Nothing to see here, just the CDC ADMITTING they have no record of an unvaccinated person spreading COVID after recovering from COVID

    If we hadn't abandoned modern public health practices in favor of unproven technology, the unvaccinated who recovered completely from the virus would be kept in reserve as a potentially valuable source of antibodies to use in developing treatment regimens.

    My wife has been puzzled about the antibody situation for a year.

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  15. SteveF says:

    If we hadn't abandoned modern public health practices in favor of unproven technology witchcraft and propaganda.

    FIFY

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  16. drwilliams says:

    https://legalinsurrection.com/2021/11/is-the-fbi-now-leaking-project-veritas-documents-to-the-new-york-times/

    Another building that needs to be leveled. 

    Notice the mass resignations in protest of the FBI’s politicization of “justice”? Yeah, neither did I. 

    Best to leave both buildings full when the demo charges go off. 

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  17. Clayton W. says:

    The Moon is a Harsh Mistress has one of the best acronyms:  TANSTAAFL – There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.

    No free college, free food, free housing.  NOTHING is free, and freedom itself has had a very high price, from time to time.

  18. SteveF says:

    All "positive rights" come at someone else's expense. A right to affordable housing means that someone has to pay your rent or to create more apartments or houses. A right to healthcare means doctors and nurses and hospital beds have to be paid for by someone. A right to food (healthy food from sustainable, cruelty-free, non-corporate sources) and education, likewise.

    TANSTAAFL

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  19. Greg Norton says:

    https://legalinsurrection.com/2021/11/is-the-fbi-now-leaking-project-veritas-documents-to-the-new-york-times/

    Another building that needs to be leveled. 

    Project Veritas made its mark taking out ACORN. Obama's Justice Department couldn't go after him without it being an obvious conflict of interest by the Community Organizer in Chief and his Attorney General, Stedman Graham, but O'Keefe going under a legal microscope was inevitable once a new Dem President took office.

    Of course, lost in the conversation is the question of exactly how much cooperation the Justice Department received from Apple in unlocking O’Keefe’s iPhone.

    Be wary of Apple services, no matter how convenient. The only document I keep in iCloud is my blood pressure diary.

    EMail is completely isolated from iCloud.

  20. nick flandrey says:

    No work at the house next door so I took a look around.  Holy cow its some bad workmanship.   I'm pretty sure the guys are done and I'd be surprised to see them again.

    80-20 rule is very common when defrauding someone in construction.

    Do 80% of the work for 20% of the time and money.   Skate.   Because the remaining 20% of the work takes 80% of the time.

    n

  21. lynn says:

    Freefall: Space Station Zoomies

        http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff3700/fc03670.htm

    Watch out for the galloping wolf !

  22. lynn says:

    "SpaceX's Starlink Now Serves 140,000 Users"

    https://www.pcmag.com/news/spacexs-starlink-now-serves-140000-users

    "The company also tells the FCC that the chip shortage is slowing down Starlink's consumer rollout."

    1,800 satellites serving 140,000 customers in 20 countries.  Over 750,000 orders pending.  One of which is my main business.

  23. lynn says:

    "Escape to Venus (Perry Rhodan #15)" by Clark Darlton, translated by Wendayne Ackerman
    https://www.amazon.com/Escape-Venus-Perry-Rhodan-Darlton/dp/B0006W4GG6/br?tag=ttgnet-20 />

    Book number fifteen of a series of one hundred and twenty-six space opera books in English. The original German books, actually pamphlets, number in the thousands. The English books started with two translated German stories per book and transitioned to one story per book with the sixth book. The German books were written from 1961 to present time, having sold two billion copies and even recently been rebooted. I read the well printed and well bound book published by Ace in 1972 that I had to be very careful with due to age. My copy is a second edition from 1974. I bought an almost complete box of Perry Rhodans a decade or two ago on ebay that I am finally getting to since I lost my original Perry Rhodans in The Great Flood of 1989. In fact, I now own book #1 to book #101.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Rhodan

    In this alternate universe, USSF Major Perry Rhodan and his three fellow astronauts blasted off in a three stage rocket to the Moon in 1971. The first stage of the rocket was chemical, the second and third stages were nuclear. After crashing on the Moon due to a strange radio interference, they discover a massive crashed alien spaceship with an aged male scientist (Khrest), a female commander (Thora), and a crew of 500.

    It has been ten years since Perry Rhodan and Reginald Bell found the crashed Arkonide cruiser on Earth's Moon. Thora has been anxiously awaiting Perry to take her back to Arkon, 35,000 light years away. Khrest has changed his life mission from extending the life of key Arkonides to helping the Earthers take over the galaxy since the Immortal declared that nothing can restore the Arkonides out of their decadence. In her frustration, Thora steals a small space destroyer and takes off for the old Arkonide Venus base to use the hyperwave transmitter to contact Arkon. She does not know that Perry changed the security codes for the Venus base and instructed the electronic brain to shoot down any invader.

    One has to remember that this book was written in German in 1962 and translated to English in 1972. Many items that came about in the 1970s and beyond such as cell phones are not reflected in the book. However, commercial aircraft commonly traveling at Mach 3 are not available to the public as talked about in the book. Niels Bohr's saying "Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future" comes to mind.

    Two observations:
    1. The publisher should have put two to four of the translated stories in each book. Having two stories in the first five books worked out well. Just having one story in the book is too short and would never allow the translated books to catch up to the German originals.
    2. Anyone liking Perry Rhodan and wanting a more up to date story should read the totally awesome "Mutineer's Moon" Dahak series of three books by David Weber.
    https://www.amazon.com/Mutineers-Moon-Dahak-David-Weber/dp/0671720856/br?tag=ttgnet-20 />

    My rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    Amazon rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars (2 reviews)

  24. lynn says:

    "Ford Debuts All-Electric 1978 F-100 Concept"

       https://www.carprousa.com/blog/ford-debuts-all-electric-1978-f-100-concept

    You can now buy a $3,900 electric motor from Ford to replace your gas motor in your pickup.  281 hp and 317 ftlbs of torque.  Does not include the batteries.

    I must admit that I like the new frunk in the forthcoming all electric 2022 F-150 (picture on website).

  25. Paul+Hampson says:

    Mics.  Taking your point about learning projection.  The other side is that I've run into just as much problem with not using the provided mic; especially where a mic is being passed around to people who can project so they think they don't need the mic – but the mic is tied to the wireless listening posts for the hard of hearing and it doesn't matter how well they project, if the mic doesn't hear it neither does the hard of hearing user.  Then there are those who aren't used to the mic and get scared if they can hear themselves and take to whispering or holding the mic where it can't pick up.

  26. MrAtoz says:

    and his Attorney General, Stedman Graham,

    LOL! I'm telling him this the next time I see him. He's a nice guy, btw.

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  27. Alan says:

    Pick your 'poison'…

    "Moderna says Covid vaccine has fewer breakthrough cases than Pfizer’s, but higher myocarditis rates in young men"

    https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/11/moderna-says-covid-vaccine-has-fewer-breakthrough-cases-than-pfizers.html

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  28. Greg Norton says:

    "SpaceX's Starlink Now Serves 140,000 Users"

    "The company also tells the FCC that the chip shortage is slowing down Starlink's consumer rollout."

    Lack of bandwidth in dense, urban areas is slowing down Starlink's consumer rollout. The chip shortage is a convenient excuse.

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  29. lynn says:

    "EXCLUSIVE: Gun Owners and Patriots on Veterans Day Point Out Rittenhouse Case Is an Attack on Legal Gun Owners Acting in Self Defense"

        https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/11/exclusive-gun-owners-patriots-veterans-day-point-rittenhouse-case-attack-legal-gun-owners-acting-self-defense/

    "It’s not a Supreme Court trial yet, however, it is in our opininion [the Kyle Rittenhouse case] a landmark case of “can you defend yourself in this country?”.  It’s a landmark stand your ground case.  It’s a landmark self-defense case, in general.  And what we’re seeing with the trial itself is really political persecution of a gun owner, or of gun owners in general, and basically using this case and Kyle is the whipping boy to make all of you gun owners out there, legal gun owners in America, scared to defend yourself with a gun.  Because, what’s happening to Kyle when he was obviously defending himself, that that could happen to you."

    Yes.  When I went to handgun training in Nevada at Frontsight, they told us to expect to be persecuted by the local DA if we were involved in a shooting, no matter how righteous the shooting was.  They were adamant about this and brought up three cases, one of the cases was a shooting of a serial killer in a restaurant by a diner.  The serial killer had already killed three people in the restaurant IIRC.  And the local DA charged the diner with murder but he walked.

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  30. Greg Norton says:

    Chuckie has nothing to lose at this point. The Davis family probably called in a favor to get those emails leaked since the alternative was another two years of mediocre coaching at a minimum before the halfway point in the 10 year contract was reached.

    Gotta wonder who else was being naughty in that email stash from the investigation.

    https://dailycaller.com/2021/11/12/jon-gruden-suing-roger-goodell-nfl-leaked-emails/

  31. SteveF says:

    When I went to handgun training in Nevada at Frontsight, they told us to expect to be persecuted by the local DA if we were involved in a shooting, no matter how righteous the shooting was.

    Kill everyone.

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  32. lpdbw says:

    Lack of bandwidth in dense, urban areas is slowing down Starlink's consumer rollout. The chip shortage is a convenient excuse.

    When I applied for the beta, I seem to recall they wouldn't let me enter a highly populated zipcode.  I live in a Houston suburb, but the site I want it for is in rural Illinois.

    It looks like a really good solution for those difficult last mile applications, but dubious when there are good wired or LTE solutions available.  My Illinois farm has none of that.  Also no Starlink at this time; no budget for it.

  33. lynn says:

    "What Happens If Time Gets Hacked"

        https://www.darkreading.com/vulnerabilities-threats/what-happens-if-time-gets-hacked

    "Renowned hardware security expert raises alarm on the risk and dangers of cyberattackers targeting the current time-synchronization infrastructure."

    I did not realize that the intertubes has a constant broadcast of time signals.

  34. Geoff Powell says:

    @lynn:

    I did not realize that the intertubes has a constant broadcast of time signals.

    It doesn't. At least not broadcasting. What it has is a network of time servers that you can connect to, and synchronise your computer with. All the time servers run software similar to NTP, and if you interrogate an NTP server correctly, you can set your computer's clock.

    The worry is that nefarious people might interfere with the NTP communications traffic.

    Time servers come in grades, called strata, numbered from 1 to 15. Stratum 1 have a direct connection to a high-accuracy, so-called refclock, generally a special GPS receiver. You'll normally find those in national standards labs, e.g. NIST in the US, and they're not for the great unwashed like you or I.

    Stratum 2 servers get their time from stratum 1 servers over the intertubes, and you are expected to get your time from these, or lower strata (higher number). It’s like a pyramid – Stratum 1 at the top, and then layers of successively marginally lower-accuracy strata below. Until you get to Stratum 15, which is your computer, not running NTP.

    Of course, there's nothing to stop you building your own stratum 1 server, to use on your own network. You can do it with a Raspberry Pi – any Pi, although a Pi 3 or higher is preferred. Total cost is probably on the order of $200 at most, plus a few hours of your time.It's not difficult, but knowledge of the Linux command-line is preferred.

    G.

  35. Greg Norton says:

    I did not realize that the intertubes has a constant broadcast of time signals.

    NTP? That's been around a long time, but the system isn't as vulnerable as the article makes it seem.

    I've never seen a wall clock operate on NTP. My guess is that the demo was spoofing the UK equivalent of WWVB, which would be relatively easy to pull off with inexpensive hardware.

    The big problem with the NTP system right now is that there is a kind of religious war with the people behind the legacy server software underpinning the system, NTPd, and the Kewl Kids who favor the newer Chronyd.

    I encountered the situation at the last job, where time sync was critical, and the DevOps people kept trying to shift our systems to Chronyd, which, long story short, was not sufficiently accurate. But it was Kewl.

    Just what IT needs — another Vi vs. Emacs war.

  36. nick flandrey says:

    Someone I knew of second hand made a good living installing GPS disciplined time servers in network racks.  That was years ago, I expect it's a field tech thing now.

    n

  37. nick flandrey says:

    Wow.

    Entrepreneur Who Flew To Space With William Shatner On Blue Origin Dies In Plane Crash

    by Tyler Durden

    Friday, Nov 12, 2021 – 03:30 PM

    Entrepreneur Glen de Vries, who flew to space on Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin with William Shatner, died in a plane crash on Thursday, according to CBS News, citing New Jersey State Police. 

    De Vries,49, was killed in a small plane crash in Hampton Township, about 60 miles west of New York City, around 1500 ET Wednesday. Another passenger, 50yo Thomas P. Fischer, was also killed in the crash. 

    De Vries is the co-founder of Medidata Solutions, a top-rated clinical research platform that has handled over 25,000 clinical trials involving seven million patients. 

    "Our thoughts and support go out to Glen's family," a Dassault Systèmes spokesperson said in a statement Friday. Dassault acquired Medidata in 1999 for $5.8 billion. 

    –clinical trials?  Small plane?  probably nothing.

    n

  38. ech says:

    All "positive rights" come at someone else's expense. 

    There is exactly 1 positive right in the US Constitution: the right to a jury trial. There are positive rights in some state constitutions. It can be argued that the right to vote is a positive right, but it's not much of one in terms of costs.

  39. Greg Norton says:

    Someone I knew of second hand made a good living installing GPS disciplined time servers in network racks.  That was years ago, I expect it's a field tech thing now.

    There is still a call for that kind of work, but applications would be located in extreme environments without reliable Internet … like toll plazas!

    We spent big money on GPS time servers at the last job, but we frequently encountered situations where the servers would go "berzerk" (for lack of a better term), particularly in rural locations, rendering the boxes wildly inaccurate unless someone went out and rebooted the boxes manually.

  40. MrAtoz says:

    Thank goodness:

    BREAKING: Biden’s OSHA COVID-19 vaccine mandate loses in court. AGAIN

    I'm double vaxx'd. I'm not getting a booster unless I require it for something I want to do that requires it. I don't see how this can pass Constitutional muster. It's trying to use an agency that already has too much power that belongs to Congress (get off your duffs). This and all Federal vax mandates must die.

  41. MrAtoz says:

    Also, if OSHA can mandate a vax, why can't the FEMA/CDC mandate one for everybody using the same illogic? I really want Congress to limit the *laws* these agencies are making. GET OFF YOUR DUFFS! STOP ALL THE INFIGHTING!

  42. SteveF says:

    Also, if OSHA can mandate a vax, why can't the FEMA/CDC mandate one for everybody using the same illogic?

    Why can't US DOT mandate it for everyone who uses any road paid in part by federal money?

    I really want Congress to limit the *laws* these agencies are making.

    Simple enough. Declare every law, which gives de facto law-making power to executive departments, null, void, and unConstitutional. I'll admit, that's easy to say but a bit tricky to word so that the executive branch has the power to carry out laws but doesn't have the ability to make or interpret law.

  43. lynn says:

    "Would America survive a civil war?"

        https://unherd.com/2021/11/would-america-survive-a-civil-war/

    "The US army could not withstand an insurgency"

    The question is, would anyone in the USA survive a civil war ?  Sooner or later, some Nimrod would get a hold of nuclear weapons.  And use them.

    Hat tip to:

        https://drudgereport.com/

  44. Alan says:

    >> Time servers come in grades, called strata, numbered from 1 to 15. Stratum 1 have a direct connection to a high-accuracy, so-called refclock, generally a special GPS receiver. You'll normally find those in national standards labs, e.g. NIST in the US, and they're not for the great unwashed like you or I.

    Of course, there's nothing to stop you building your own stratum 1 server, to use on your own network. You can do it with a Raspberry Pi – any Pi, although a Pi 3 or higher is preferred. Total cost is probably on the order of $200 at most, plus a few hours of your time.It's not difficult, but knowledge of the Linux command-line is preferred.

    So if you build your own Stratum 1 server you can just connect it to a refclock? No userid/authentication required?

  45. Alan says:

    >> Entrepreneur Who Flew To Space With William Shatner On Blue Origin Dies In Plane Crash

    by Tyler Durden

    Does something as innocuous as this need to use the "Tyler" byline? Or does ZH now just use it for every story?

    It's all over the MSM. Just wondering before we go back to binging "Fear the Walking Dead."

  46. Greg Norton says:

    So if you build your own Stratum 1 server you can just connect it to a refclock? No userid/authentication required?

    Stratum 1 is synced to a few milliseconds of the reference source. Direct connection.

    Most of the NTP "pool" available on the open Internet is Stratum 2 with a few Stratum 3.

    At the plaza installations at the last job, we assigned the two servers to be Stratum 6 and 8.

  47. ~jim says:

    I watched Joe Dante's 1993 flick, _Matinee_ again today. Probably been 10 years since I've seen it. Just such gentle fun, esp for fans of early sci-fi. 

    https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0107529/

    IMDB got so mixed up with Amazon's advertising a couple months ago it was driving me mad, but I finally figured out how to access it without the annoying delay of inserted second-party crap. Install a separate dumb little browser (I like Lightening) and disable JavaScript! All the normal sections show up without the delay.

    _Matinee_ is on Amazon Prime with a Starz subscription. It seems to me the trial subscriptions expire after about a year or so, so you can repeat trial subscriptions after that. I guess they are relying on the old book-of-the-club subscriber procrastination delay.

    https://www.amazon.com/Matinee-John-Goodman/dp/B009CGG4BW//p?tag=ttgnet-20

    *****

    @Rick

    I am dearly awaiting the day I can highlight more than one word in this stupid comment box! 

  48. RickH says:

    I am dearly awaiting the day I can highlight more than one word in this stupid comment box! 

    On my laptop, highlighting a bunch of words works just fine with the usual process. Perhaps you are trying it on a phone – tablet?  There should be the equivalent of shift-click-drag to highlight a block for your device.

    The issue is probably related to your device and the process it 'recognizes' as a shift-click-drag. It works fine on my laptop, and my Android phone, using the processes specific to the device.

    It is not a function of the theme, the comment box, or the CKEDITOR 4 used for the comment box. The comment box is just a ‘textarea’ on a form. The process to select multiple area of text is browser/device based.

  49. ~jim says:

    That's wonderful for your laptop, Rick. On Android 10, Chrome 95, not so good… 

    Edit: I think you mentioned earlier it was a bug in ck editor, or whatever it is.

  50. lynn says:

    I am dearly awaiting the day I can highlight more than one word in this stupid comment box! 

    On my laptop, highlighting a bunch of words works just fine with the usual process. Perhaps you are trying it on a phone – tablet?  There should be the equivalent of shift-click-drag to highlight a block for your device.

    The issue is probably related to your device and the process it 'recognizes' as a shift-click-drag. It works fine on my laptop, and my Android phone, using the processes specific to the device.

    It is not a function of the theme, the comment box, or the CKEDITOR 4 used for the comment box. The comment box is just a ‘textarea’ on a form. The process to select multiple area of text is browser/device based.

    I have the same bug on my Samsung Galaxy S10 Android phone connected to Verizon.

  51. Nick Flandrey says:

    "it 'recognizes' as a shift-click-drag. It works fine on my laptop, and my Android phone, using the processes specific to the device."

    – wow, weird.  Oh my phone I can select for copy by touch and hold, then move the text selection handle to encompass more than one word.  then I get the copy popup. To paste into the comment box, I run into the issue that samsung internet doesn't see the field as a text entry field right away.  I can touch and hold forever and not get the paste pop up.

    I have to touch,  then touch and hold.  

    Then I got a completely new popup telling me to paste into the box, and hit enter. Which finally pastes into the comment field.

    This is similar to ffox where I have to click inside the field before it treats it as a text entry field. And it highjacks the right click, which is probably what interferes with the phone browsers.

    N

  52. Alan says:

    >> On my laptop, highlighting a bunch of words works just fine with the usual process. Perhaps you are trying it on a phone – tablet?  There should be the equivalent of shift-click-drag to highlight a block for your device.

    The issue is probably related to your device and the process it 'recognizes' as a shift-click-drag. It works fine on my laptop, and my Android phone, using the processes specific to the device.

    It is not a function of the theme, the comment box, or the CKEDITOR 4 used for the comment box. The comment box is just a ‘textarea’ on a form. The process to select multiple area of text is browser/device based.

    On my phone (Pixel 2 with native Android 11) when I've entered some text into the Add Comment textbox and then want to say, bold a word, the  Android text select function is (normally) enabled by a long press on the screen which gives the two green selection handles, however what actually happens is that CTE grabs the long press first and opens its Paste textbox. Is anyone else seeing this behavior on Android, and if so, have you found a work-around?

    @Rick, separately, I recall someone asking recently if any funds were need to cover the site hosting for this and Barbara's sites?

    Did that get cleared up? Thanks.

  53. Nick Flandrey says:

    text into the Add Comment textbox and then want to say, bold a word, the  Android text select function is (normally) enabled by a long press on the screen which gives the two green selection handles, however what actually happens is that CTE grabs the long press first and opens its Paste textbox. Is anyone else seeing this behavior on Android, and if so, have you found a work-around?

    –that is exactly how it works for me with samsung internet on android.  No  work around that I have found.

    n

  54. Greg Norton says:

    I watched Joe Dante's 1993 flick, _Matinee_ again today. Probably been 10 years since I've seen it. Just such gentle fun, esp for fans of early sci-fi. 

    John Goodman essentially playing William Castle. About once a year "Mr. Sardonicus" runs on "Svengoolie", arguably the best gimmick Castle ever used on an audience.

    Kevin Smith talked about directing John Goodman in "Red State" during the Q&A at the Austin screening of "Clerk" last week. I forgot that Goodman was outstanding in that flick; Michael Parks gets all the press.

    Of course Smith recalled that Goodman was a pro, never leaving set even if he wasn’t in a scene and killing time between scenes playing “Words With Friends”.

  55. brad says:

    High latitude + mountains = short days. We're seeing about 6 hours of sunshine at the moment, at a very low angle. Not much solar power to be had. On which note: I'm glad to see that France has decided to start building nuclear power plants again. That really is the only choice. Choose the right design, and nuclear waste should be mostly a non-issue. I can only hope that other European countries will also come to their senses, now that the first has broken ranks.

    All "positive rights" come at someone else's expense.

    This. I was just reading about some disabled folks filing suit for discrimination. Turns out that the "discrimination" was that some private business was failing to spend *extra* money to accomodate them. It wasn't an ADA-suit (I don't think it was even in the US), but the same principle. No, sorry, other people do not have to subsidize you. It's nice if they do, but it isn't (or shouldn't be) a requirement.

    80-20 rule is very common when defrauding someone in construction.

    Yes. Especially if you're hiring labor with questionable qualifications. I suppose in the US it's wetbacks. Here, it tends to be undocumented workers from Italy, Spain or Portugal. In the UK, funnily enough, it was the UK-workers who did the shoddy work – you really wanted the Polish workers, because they didn't come in hung over, and didn't knock off early for a beer.

    Lack of bandwidth in dense, urban areas is slowing down Starlink's consumer rollout. The chip shortage is a convenient excuse.

    Starlink is a great idea, but not for urban areas. Satellite communication is ideal for rural or mobile links, but it makes no sense for a city. If you're in a city, you want fiber.

  56. SteveF says:

    I’m getting a whole lot less “you have too much food” nonsense lately too.

    Likewise. Though in my case that might be because I got the stuff neatened up better, rather than spousal awareness of systemic problems.

    We don't have nearly as much as I want to have stacked, but it's a reasonable compromise between continuing to eat after the world falls apart, not being inconvenienced by sporadic empty spots on store shelves, the room available to store things, keeping people-who-aren't-me from just using the long-term supplies, and being able to eat what's stored before it goes bad. (Where "bad" means "ooh, yuck, these crackers are stale, I'm not eating these" or "we can't eat these because the can is past its expiration date", not being actually, you know, bad.)

  57. Geoff Powell says:

    @alan:

    So if you build your own Stratum 1 server you can just connect it to a refclock? No userid/authentication required?

    Yes, because the refclock is co-sited with your NTP server, and is assumed to be your property. Despite what some big companies would like, in this matter you can do what you like with your own property.

    G.

  58. Geoff Powell says:

    @greg:

    Stratum 1 is synced to a few milliseconds of the reference source.

    Make that microseconds, and I'll agree with you. Even a Raspberry Pi can keep time to that level, at stratum 1. Over-the-wire though, milliseconds are the order of the day, at best.

    G.

  59. Greg Norton says:

    Starlink is a great idea, but not for urban areas. Satellite communication is ideal for rural or mobile links, but it makes no sense for a city. If you're in a city, you want fiber.

    Americans and the "pizza box" dream.

    It may well happen for a small subset of the population in rural areas via Starlink, but the $60-100/month bill won’t begin to cover the true costs of providing the service.

  60. Greg Norton says:

    The answer to the question is "Yes!"

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_ua10EMbSg

    To paraphrase, “Human sacrifice! Boys and girls working together — mass hysteria!”

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