Cool and damp, but warmer than before. I hope not damper than before.
Did my things. Succeeded with some. Failed with others. Fell asleep in the chair.
Talk, or spend time with others and THEN talk to us and tell us how it went.
Stack all the things.
n
Management is over "working" from home. My wanting to return to a regular office environment is probably part of why I have the new job.
Whether or not any true reforms happened at the various levels of government in the aftermath, the freeze week in February spotlighted the fact that a lot of employees disappeared from their jobs in mid-December 2020 and still weren’t covering responsibilities two months later, thinking someone else would handle any crisis.
A lot of companies here are still targeting the first week of January to shift to a “hybrid” model. “Hybrid” as in they want to see faces at least three days a week.
My job search was only for 100% remote jobs. Partly that's because I'm stuck where I am for the foreseeable future and the IT job market near Albany is dominated by government contracts, partly because the mother-in-law is continuing her cognitive decline and a responsible adult needs to be around at all times to make sure she doesn't hurt herself or burn the house down, and partly because the home environment is better for work.
My last seven jobs or contracts have been in "open plan" "work" spaces, with at most low partitions which were useful only for attaching shelves; they certainly did nothing to keep the noise down. My hearing is excellent and I've never had much interest in chatting about the latest movie or celebrity gossip, so the constant idiocy of non-work yammering is distracting and annoying. There's also the aroma of people who make up a large fraction of the non-American IT workforce.
My self-discipline is easily up to the rigors of getting work done when not being watched and I don't need to have people around, so there's almost no downside to working from home. The trick was to find work with a group which was set up to deal productively with a distributed workforce.
I have several of their products. All seem to work quite well and not expensive. $6.00 for a useful product.
None of which is to disagree with Greg's oft-repeated points about the problems of much of the workforce working — "working" — from home. A lot of people, probably a majority, do not have the motivation or self-discipline to keep working when not being watched. (Supporting evidence: most people "can't" lose weight, don't stick to exercise plans, don't stick to limits on the amount of time watching videos or playing games, don't complete school-from-home curricula.) Simply taking the in-office workforce and moving them to working from home doesn't work for most.
What might help with the "motivation and self-discipline" shortfall would be a change of incentives, such as a low base salary with payments for accomplishing units of work. That doesn't apply to all types of work and doesn't begin to address most persons' need for social interaction.
Nor does it address the unfortunate fact that most of the work done by most of the American workforce isn't necessary and adds almost no value to the world. The deskwork workforce, that is; we can't make do with fewer plumbers or ranchers without reducing population or making major changes. The majority of office workers, though, could fall into a mini black hole and not be missed.
(That includes myself and my coworkers. Sure, we make about fifty medical practices slightly more efficient and may slightly improve health outcomes for some of their tens of thousands of patients, but is it really enough to justify paying the salaries for the two dozen of us? I have my doubts.)
Don't follow the narrative…
Twitter Slaps 'Unsafe' Label On American Heart Association mRNA Vaccine Warning
Get censored no matter who you are.
Ruh, Roh:
HUGE: Federal Judge Strikes Down DOD Claim That Pfizer’s EUA ‘Vaccine’ and Comirnaty Are ‘Interchangeable’
Monkey wrench.
@Nick
I’d call that a success for the first few minutes anyway.
Well, wife and D2 are running a 5K, D1 is with the asst. GS leader and 4 other troublemakers getting her Red Cross Babysitting cert. Doggy has been dosed, and is laying in bed with the cone of shame haunting his every move. I did give him a vigorous head and neck scratching this morning.
I'm getting ready to start my day. Heavy overcast with low fog, hopefully burning off soon. I think I'll get some of the decor up, and then move some stuff to storage.
n
but first, coffee
This is so true. Digitization has increased "paperwork" exponentially. I worked in pre-computer law office and pre-computer quasi-government org, both of which are known for their love of paper generation. And I can recall the days when meetings actually had a completed work product finished when they ended. Just a brief few words between the person who needed something and the person who did it would get things accomplished.
Activism and PR have created vast new departments for communications and marketing that were completely unneeded 30 years ago, and aren't much better today. Time was, if any media had questions, they asked the person closest to the thing and got a good answer. They didn't play gotcha. Or one of the secretaries typed up a press release and carried it to the local city desk and to each of the radio stations and voila! Media campaign done and dusted.
Comirnaty may not be in manufacturing or, if it is, being produced in limited quantities. Strictly anecdotal evidence, but my wife hasn't heard from anyone she knows locally who has laid eyes on a vial with that label.
success for the first few minutes
—I wouldn't mind it if it was the reclined lazyboy. I used to sleep very well in one. Head bobbing forward in my desk chair just means a sore neck when I do wake up. In this case, about 2 1/2 hours later. At least there isn't a puddle of drool 🙂
n
Does anyone else have nut trees? We had a decent crop of pecans this year. Not a bumper crop but worth collecting. I carried five gallons of pecans over to Goldthwaite and got them cracked/blown yesterday. Usually when we have a crop I'll have 15 gallons gathered by now, but this year the natives are too small for the cracking machines so I didn't gather them and am only picking up the larger varietals. .
The natives fall a month before the varietals, which is one reason I am behind in picking them up. I had the trees sprayed two years ago and it made for much better pecans, many fewer weevils. No crop at all last year, and I forgot this summer, so too many have holes in them. I won't forget again. It makes it harder to pick them up when I have to inspect each to make sure they are good before going into the bucket. Paying by the pound for cracking so I don't really want to have to pay for empty shells!
On the plus side, the larger pecans crack better, with lots more halves. We mostly just eat them out of hand or use in cooking, so it doesn't matter, but the halves are prettier in pralines or to give away.
Cali is a desert. Increasingly important to remember that, especially if you live there, or eat their agricultural products (most of us do).
https://www.zerohedge.com/weather/california-cut-water-farms-and-cities-after-7-months-severe-droughts
Rolling blackouts don't leave the returning electrons dirtied. Rolling pressure drops means boil water or micron filtration. And cisterns to collect water when it is available, just like in the third world.
n
Kevin Roche on the “Moronic” variant:
The evidence so far is that Moronic also may lead to less severe disease. Again, probably too early to assess that properly, and in heavily vaccinated populations it will be very difficult to track the effect properly. We haven’t been assessing Delta in the best analytic way, so right now I am assuming the same screwed up approach will be used for Moronic. So aside from my base of skepticism to everything until good data and research is produced, there is nothing in the early data that tells me we should be unduly worried. I know the CV-19 terrorists will be disappointed.
Which brings up the real issue with how this epidemic has been tracked and responded to–the excessive use and inadequacies of PCR testing. We are using these ridiculously over-sensitive tests to call people cases and infected. I have pounded away from the start of the epidemic at the concept of adaptive immunity and what it really means for an encounter with a respiratory pathogen. People need to think about this, and even our supposed public health experts rarely explain it properly. Adaptive immunity does not stop exposure. Nothing short of enveloping yourself in Saran wrap will, as should be apparent from this epidemic. (Look, for example, at the wonderful impact masking has had.) Anyone at any point could have some virus or virus fragments in their upper respiratory tract. If they have been vaccinated or even better, had a prior infection, they are likely to clear any viable virus very quickly. But if they are tested while that is occurring, they are a “case”.
We will never get out of this terrible cycle of futile and damaging responses to the epidemic as long as we keep this idiotic testing regime going.
https://healthy-skeptic.com/2021/12/04/a-serious-look-at-the-moronic-variant/
Ramblings for today.
Going to watch the SEC championship match between Georgia and Alabama. I hope Georgia prevails but in a game of this magnitude between these two schools the outcome is most uncertain. I don't get any richer, thinner or younger regardless of who wins. I just enjoy watching.
Scheduled for Covid booster today, both I and the spousal unit. Need to because we are both over 65, have a former exchange student from Germany arriving the 19th and want to protect her, and protect us. Scheduling on the CVS website is overly complicated with too much information required. The government is paying 100% of the cost so why all the unnecessary garbage about insurance?
Photographed a couple of basketball games on Thursday. District rivalry between schools that are in the district and 15 miles from each other. Girls got slammed, they are basically not doing well this season. Boys game was what you would call a barn burner. Several lead changes, never more than a six point lead. Tied (or tide) with 15 seconds left. One school scores leaving 2.4 seconds on the clock. Other school inbounds, quick pass, shot at the basket that bounces off the rim, buzzer sounds.
Pictures are located at
http://www.raymondthompsonphotography.com/OSHS/
If you need a time sink.
I'd go broader than that. Huge increases in productivity, the addition of most women to the full-time, life-long workforce, and the increase in healthy lifespan requiring the continuation of oldsters in the workforce have resulted in many more workers being available than there is work to do. This inevitably results in work being made for them to do: more bureaucrats, more people in departments which deal with demands from the bureaucrats, and jobs created as make-work because we're so rich that money can be siphoned off for useless positions.
I've previously guesstimated that one third of adults in the US carry the productive load for the rest.
@Nick
Change your office chair.
7-8 years ago I stopped at a garage sale and found a nice high-backed office chair for $25. At the time I had finally talked myself into the tall $300 chair at OfficeMax, but was waiting for the sale. This one was "bonded leather", not fabric, and of course was starting to show the delaminating disease that makes that product inherently defective. But it fit all my important parts and the price was right. I still have it, and the arm rests are mostly peeled, but I can lean back and fall asleep and not be a pretzel when I wake up.
Yanno when you're reading along and have a thought, and then read the same thing?
"It can’t be long before the Dems try something similar with Biden’s approval. "
https://twitchy.com/dougp-3137/2021/12/04/wapo-looks-at-bigger-picture-to-show-why-the-dcccs-gas-price-graph-is-so-ridiculous/
Fascist bastards:
https://legalinsurrection.com/2021/12/woman-describes-life-inside-australia-covid-quarantine-camp-its-inhumane/
@Ray Thompson
Some nice shots in there, Ray.
Always enjoy seeing the extra effort as evidenced by the tongues poking out.
WTH:
'You're taking money out of my kids' mouths': Marine sues after the DEA confiscated his entire life savings of $87K during routine traffic stop after dogs 'smelled drugs' on the cash
1. Don't ever *let* the cops search you or your car.
2.All cash has *drug* residue on it.
The guy wasn't even charged. Cops called DEA as soon as the cash looked over $xxx. "That's our now."
Move along. Nothing to see here.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/12/the_clinton_foundation_shrivels.html
If I were working for a future conservative presidential candidate with an eye toward the future, one of my "lists" would be specific instances of search anomalies that always seem to be tilted in one particular direction.
If SCOTUS can't find a penumbra to fit that one into, then they all need to be retired.
Prescription drug ads on TV were only allowed after a lawsuit went to the Supreme Court. Allowed on 1st Amendment grounds.
At $4k per dose, that's in the ballpark for monthly cost of the pills. And a once-per month shot may have a higher compliance rate than pills.
It's being made. It's just at the end of the use pipeline. There were a lot of doses made before the EUA was changed to full approval and those need to be used up first. (And given that the only physical difference between the two is the label and box insert, the judge is an ignoramus.)
@pecancorner,
When we were living at our rent house (inside the Loop- for Houston insiders) we had several large pecan trees around us. I was able to collect a bushel or more. When we moved to this house, where I actually had two trees, one in front and one in back, I never got a single nut.
in front, all the nuts were shriveled moldy things inside, and in back the squirrels ruined every single nut eating into it while still green.
Still had to pick up all the nuts though, and the shells were razor sharp.
n
I love pecans but the trees are being cut down by 'lot line' developers putting houses edge to edge on the lots. Used to see people picking up nuts from empty lots all the time, but not any more.
>> Scheduling on the CVS website is overly complicated with too much information required. The government is paying 100% of the cost so why all the unnecessary garbage about insurance?
What really annoyed me about CVS is having to hand over my health insurance card, my Rx insurance card and my DL after having to input all that info online. When I went for my 3rd shot l said sorry, I have no insurance and no ID but I confirmed with the county that neither is required, left arm please. Got a dirty look from the tech but got jabbed.
I remember when Civil Forfeiture was first embraced in Texas. Police chiefs and Sheriffs had starry eyes. At the time, I thought surely the Supreme Court would strike that down within a couple of years as Unreasonable Seizure.
That was when I was in my early 20s. I'm 64 now, and neither SCOTUS nor any legislatures have outlawed it. Instead, they continue with impunity and increased abandon.
Any recommendations for a basic scanner that installs/runs happily with Win 10/11? Tired of running to the local FedEx every time I need some photocopies. Last time I looked everything I looked at had enough bad reviews to make me think twice. Thanks.
CVS pays a third party to handle their online scheduling – and CVS staff cannot see any part of the info other than your name on their calendar that day. My guess is that third party is storing info for their own use, not CVS’s.
I found this out when they cancelled my appt for a COVID test because "their system was down". No one contacted me , I didn’t find out until I arrived at the store. The next day, I got an email cancelling my appt. The locals would not reschedule, would not give me a test anyway, could not tell me whether they had openings the next day – could not tell me anything: they might as well have been automatons for all the use they were.
That is so sad, because pecan trees produce more the older they get. A 100 year old tree will produce many times the nuts of a 25 year old tree: " with the greatest harvests occurring when the tree is between 75 to 225 years old, according to the U.S. Forest Service."
However, people who are shopping for a home that is built up to the lot's edge would probably see a pecan tree as a nuisance rather than an asset, so the builders are probably doing what they know their market will demand. As you well know, unless one enjoys the produce, the trees themselves aren't always welcome.
I bought this in Oct 2010: https://www.newegg.com/xerox-xd-combo/p/N82E16838152101?Item=N82E16838152101
No issues in Win 10 or Win 11. It handles multiple pages well. It's 30 bucks more now, but I'd still but it at that price.
Get a Brother multi-function printer. I have one and it has a document feeder, prints, copies and faxes (never used the fax). I think I paid $48.00 at HSN.COM. Network or USB connection.
You can use your smarty pants phone if you have one. Plenty of Android/iOS apps. Probably some built in like Apple Notes which syncs to the Mac. Google (evil) also has free scanning. I use my phone a lot for scanning on the go with Scanner Pro which OCRs thus a paid app. I do have an Epson ET-3760 AIO. Our business has a ScanSnap iX500 dual sided. I've scanned thousands of pages of biz stuff with that puppy.
I use my canon MFP or just take a photo with my phone. It offers to do ocr and save the text too (phone).
n
About pecans, and harvesting pecans, I really like this video from SmarterEveryDay: https://youtu.be/aK5AnViPkJ0
@alan:
Second the recommendation of Brother MFP. I had one, an A3 size, for a number of years, before it failed catastrophically. Gave great results on just about anything – print quality was good, cheap per-page cost for an inkjet, scans were sharp and accurate. I only used the fax about twice – the Vatican only accepts bookings for Papal bulk Blessings by fax, and only during Italian office hours.
I replaced it with a Canon Pixma TS5151 A4 MFP 2 years ago. This works like a charm on Win7 (I refused Win8, because TIFKAM, and Win10 because telemetry, permanent beta and arguable malware behaviour in the "Get Windows 10" app, so I can't speak about them). It also supports Apple Airprint, and printing from Android (with an app).
G.
Is the OCR done entirely with on-phone resources? I doubt it. So who's holding your data after it's been scanned and OCRd?
@wch
Hardly. The judge is recognizing the legal distinction. Kind of like the difference between a full-auto M16 in the hands of police SWAT vs. a private citizen.
@Alan
One of the reasons I keep a WinXP machine running and have a couple of backups is a perfectly good multifunction machine, a high-end scanner, and $20k worth of lab equipment.
But I’ll second Ray’s recommendation on Brother. It’s easy to get current drivers online.
It came out during the case that the 2 drugs are NOT identical. There are minor differences between them.
That's a better comparison than I'd been able to come up with.
>> Fascist bastards:
https://legalinsurrection.com/2021/12/woman-describes-life-inside-australia-covid-quarantine-camp-its-inhumane/
Yes…but…she made one fatal error, lying to someone from the gooberment with the power to mess with her…
@Alan
That's part of the point. They used their unfettered power to punish according to their whim.
I long ago mastered the ability to do that with my fingers on the keyboard with nary a zzz showing up on the screen, Forward or back, but yeah, often woken up by sore/stiff neck.
I don't know about Win 11 (wouldn't even know it was out if it wasn't for you folks discussing it), but I've got a not entirely basic Epson Perfection 4870 Photo that I've been using for more than eight years that Win 10 installed automatically without a fuss and I've never had a single issue.
>> WTH:
'You're taking money out of my kids' mouths': Marine sues after the DEA confiscated his entire life savings of $87K during routine traffic stop after dogs 'smelled drugs' on the cash
So…he doesn't trust banks…but he has ATM receipts showing he withdrew the money from where exactly??
Just silly to walk around with that much cash in this day and age. And now that I think about it, it's probably been at least two years since I went all cashless and have handled any US currency. Even the lottery vending machine takes debit cards now. And finally got my last credit card replaced so now all have the 'tap to pay' functionality – much faster approval – now if only the swipe terminal manufacturers would standardize on where you're supposed to tap. And people, stop using your credit cards to apportion your lines of coke.
>> Move along. Nothing to see here.
Interesting, just tried the same search and got these results – Google hears all…
About 96 results (0.36 seconds)
Search Results
It looks like these results are changing quickly
If this topic is new, it can sometimes take time for results to be added by reliable sources
Web results
About the Clinton Foundation
https://www.clintonfoundation.org › about-the-clinton-f…
President Clinton visits City Year South Africa, which launched as a Clinton Global Initiative Commitment to Action in 2005 and encourages young people to …
TOPAZ ENT`s – japan – doczz
https://doczz.net › doc › topaz-ent-s
TOPAZ ENT`s. TOPAZ ENT Company Introduction CONTENTS 1. Company Introduction 2. Business Registration 3. Purpose of Establishment / Business Area 4.
The Clinton Foundation shrivels – American Thinker
https://www.americanthinker.com › blog › 2021/12 › t…
4 hours ago — So all of a sudden, the Clinton Foundation's not drawing the revenue it used to draw. And the difference is staggering.
I have been told by my insurance company to cut down a couple of trees otherwise my premiums would be significantly higher with some damage not covered because I had been warned. Many people just do not want a yard that cannot be cut in 38 seconds with a string trimmer.
Got my Covid booster. No one waiting, lots of slots open for scheduling. Got it at CVS. Same situation at Walgreens and other pharmacies. People are not rushing to break down the door to get vaccinated or get the booster.
About pecans, and harvesting pecans, I really like this video from SmarterEveryDay: https://youtu.be/aK5AnViPkJ0
That is a great video! That kind of sorting and cracking system is similar to the one that the people I go to use. The one I go to is also mom & pop, and it has the part that filters trash out in the production line before the pecans go into the hopper to be cracked. After they are cracked, they are "blown" with a system that removes most of the loose shell, leaving nice looking nuts with only a little shell remaining to be hand-picked out. They do not hand-inspect since I do not pay them to shell. So then they put the pecans in to nice clean new cardboard boxes and seal them up. 50 cents a pound they charge for all of that. It's wonderful!
>> Prescription drug ads on TV were only allowed after a lawsuit went to the Supreme Court. Allowed on 1st Amendment grounds.
Almost everywhere else thinks otherwise.
And:
Wasn't able to find any updates on the lawsuit filed by the drug companies. I never see any pricin info so either Big Pharma prevailed or it's still being litigated.
https://www.goodrx.com/healthcare-access/patient-advocacy/prescription-drug-advertising-regulation-united-states
Supply Chain snafu of the day:
IKEA in Round Rock is out of the little meatballs. The cashier said that they've been out for three weeks.
The Swedish food section was very depleted in general when I went over to get a few sleeves of the Jammie Dodger knockoffs, the cookies with the raspberry filling.
Fortunately, they did have the cookies.
@nick or @RickH – please release me from moderation.
Thanks!
@alan = done (caught because of too many URLs in your two messages).
The little Homestyle frozen meat balls at HEB are pretty decent. I don't know how they compare to Ikea's. But they don't taste like meatloaf that is full of onion and belch pepper. Er, bell.
Made the mistake of stopping the channel surfing at the newly discovered section of old movie broadcast channels. Hit "Raise the Titanic".
I did not see it upon release in 1980. The wiki entry calls it a bomb, making only $7 millions against $40 million in production costs. No big stars, but a sprinkling of familiar faces (Jason Robards, Alec Guiness). Titanic model in the pre-CGI days cost $7 million, was discarded in Malta by the side of the horizon tank (aka infinity pool) used for filming and left to rust. ($7 million sounds 10x inflated by the accountants to help pad the loss)
Multiple rewrites on the script, including an unimpressed by the story and uncredited Larry McMurtry. Cussler hated the result–a hollow shell of his book–and no wonder: a reasonable chance at fathering the next James Bond died stillborn.
It took another thirty years for Hollywood to repeat the failure with Matthew McConaughey in 2003's Sahara, with much the same result. But nearly 20 books and millions of fans later, casting MM in the role was widely met by YHGTBFKM and it didn't much matter what they did.
Travis McGee got the same treatment, first with Rod Taylor and then with Sam Elliott. We'll have to see about Jack Reacher.
Makes it all the more exceptional that James Bond made it to film successfully. I can think of three other comparable successes, but in television. Raymond Burr as Perry Mason, with production closely supervised by Erle Stanly Gardner himself. The others, of course, are also fictional detectives.
ADDED: Sorry, should have mentioned The Thin Man with an asterisk. The William Powell/Myrna Loy namesake movie loosely based on the book, but the sublime pairing of actors led to the sequels which were not penned by Hammet.
>> OK, I have my first serious gripe about Windows 10. The Start button does not show data files connected to the programs like Windows 7 did. For instance, my Excel icon would have 7 to 10 Excel spreadsheets that I have recently opened next to it. Very easy to open a desired spreadsheet. Now I have to open Excel and then go through the convoluted File / Open dialog.
@lynn, what about the "Quick access" selection at the top of the File Explorer folders list? Find your file and double-click.
Well, thanks. I just learned something new about Winders 10.
>> Classic Shell used to be a solution, but that is no longer supported by the developer.
Try this: https://www.stardock.com/products/start10/
Still supported and also available for Win 11.
Thanks ! I move back and forth between a half dozen machines so I need for the behavior of the machines to be the same. I've just got to figure how to work with Windows 10 to meet my needs.
Scrap the American – this applies everywhere. Here, there's no need for college – the apprenticeship track works and works well. But even there, so many young people opt for a "business" training (or, in college, a business degree), thinking it will lead to a cushy life at a desk. Which is so much more comfortable that working in a shop or a construction site. But how many paper pushers do we need, and what value do they actually bring to the table?
The management at my college occasionally sends around these anonymous questionnaires, asking things like how much the latest set of management tools help us do our work. Apparently they really are anonymous, since I haven't been called on the carpet. Because I always respond with "They are crap. Why are we wasting money on more staff and more tools for staff, instead of on more teachers and reduced class sizes?". We are supposed to be a school, but that doesn't interest the people who are in charge. Pournelle's Iron Law: "The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy".
– – – – –
We really did get about 40cm of snow last night. The Ego snow blower worked a treat, although I did have to recharge the batteries once. Of course, light and fluffy snow made for ideal conditions. I'll be interested to see how it does on heavy stuff, which we will inevitably get at some point.
Ideally, I'd have a second set of batteries, but that's obviously where they make their money. Fr 640 each, and the snowblower takes two.
Yeah, but IKEA being out of those meatballs for three weeks is like Disney running out of Mickey Mouse dolls at the parks.
I made a CD of .mp3s for the truck. Just randomly tossed files into "whatever" that Win7 uses before it burns a disc. Did not re-name any.
I didn't look at the disc with Explorer. In the truck, they list mostly as expected. The 01 tunes before the 02 tunes before the 03 tunes and so on. The weirdness I noticed today was in the 03 tunes. Why is REM playing before Heart and Barry White? By artist and title, Barry should play first.
Shrug. Just a thing, not end of the world. When I eventually get to end of the disc, it goes to shuffle. 165 or so tunes is plenty for now.
When I get tired of the CD, I'll snag something similar to this:
https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Cruzer-Flash-Drive-SDCZ33-032G-A11/dp/B008C7C5OC/p?tag=ttgnet-20
Prices vary. $7.50 for 32 GB seems like a deal.
Check the timestamps on the files. That might be the issue.
Toyota is weird about playing the flash media in the FAT directory order so I had to find a utility which would sort the directory tree recursively, just like the old days before NTFS.
There are stil quirks. The audio system insists on playing songs from one of my album rips in the incorrect order. I can’t figure out why. Maybe funny characters embedded in the track names?
Oh, timestamps. Interesting. Thanks!
I'm not sweating it. Once the disc plays through, we go to random shuffle.
Nissan may have quirks ala Toyota.
Beyond timestamps, how about letter case?
E-mail doesn't care about case. Windows doesn't care. *nix stuff like webpages, does care.
…and programming languages – case in variable names counts. Has caught me more than one time.
Minor rant: camelcase ("camelCase") is irritating to me. As is variables with a hyphen inside, like "camel-case". Sometimes that means subtraction. I use 'camel_case'.
And CSS element names with hyphens. I always use underscores there too. My mind sees a hyphen as a 'subtract this' character.
Personal problem, probably.
Which languages allow hyphens in variable names?
Probably none. Which is why I get irritated with myself when I forget that…..
But CSS allows hyphens in CSS rules. And they irritate me.
" Get off my lawn! "
Microcenter has 32 gig USB 3.0 drives for $4.49.
COBOL you silly savage.
COBOL you silly savage.
Also Scheme.
I was going to comment, but I'll just hold Ray's coat.
LISP, Scheme, COBOL, Forth, of the languages I have used.
There were others, shown in a chart I saw once, but I can't find that. The chart matched up languages and what was allowed in identifier names. I think the intended purpose was to show at a glance what you needed to do for your language of choice but you if you had a burning desire to use arbitrary Unicode characters in your variable names, or have names longer than 256 characters, or have spaces in your names, that chart could help you out that way, too.
Ok. Now I remember seeing variable names or function calls with hyphens in SICP.
COBOL compilers must have been fun to write.
Curious cousin asks:
Q. Question, what is easiest way to heat water with 12 volt car battery? Like a quart?
(my) A. I imagine the most efficient way would be in microwave oven, but I'm not sure how you measure efficiency against a plain old nichrome wire. That's actually sort of a good puzzle! Have you come up with something ingenious?
Of course I jokingly suggested he hydrolyze the water and burn the hydrogen for carbon_neutral hot water…
The easiest way would be to put the water in a very heavy metal pan and then set the pan across the battery terminals.
Easiest =/= best.
I have written compilers in my career, two compilers in fact, worked on a couple others. Based on that experience COBOL would be fairly easy. COBOL, at that time, did not support parameter to calls “PERFORM” to other parts of the code or return values. Any necessary items were kept in the WORKING-STORAGE SECTION. The custom compiler I wrote had mor functionality than COBOL but was not a general purpose language.
My first database language, Datatrieve (from DEC) had case-insensitive variable names and hyphens and underscores were interchangeable. So This-Variable is the same as THIS_VARIABLE.
I loved that language. Imagine a procedural SQL layered on top of flat files with a rudimentary forms handling interface, in the 1980's, before there were commercial relational databases available. Each table was a separate file, and there were language constructs for mapping relationships.
As those became available, Datatrieve just added database interfaces, so you could use flat files and Rdb tables seamlessly.
And the product had the wombat as a mascot, and a detailed HELP command, which contained a lengthy and detailed response to "HELP WOMBAT".
LISP, Scheme, COBOL, Forth, of the languages I have used.
In some Lisps it's also possible to use spaces (and other non-alphanumeric characters) if preceded by an escape character.
>> There were others, shown in a chart I saw once, but I can't find that. The chart matched up languages and what was allowed in identifier names. I think the intended purpose was to show at a glance what you needed to do for your language of choice but you if you had a burning desire to use arbitrary Unicode characters in your variable names, or have names longer than 256 characters, or have spaces in your names, that chart could help you out that way, too.
Worked with a guy once who wrote COBOL to look like C. One letter variable names, meaningless paragraph names, function calls and recursion all over the place. Brilliant guy but everybody hated working on his code. Boss liked him though so we managed.
>> My first database language, Datatrieve (from DEC) had case-insensitive variable names and hyphens and underscores were interchangeable. So This-Variable is the same as THIS_VARIABLE.
I loved that language. Imagine a procedural SQL layered on top of flat files with a rudimentary forms handling interface, in the 1980's, before there were commercial relational databases available. Each table was a separate file, and there were language constructs for mapping relationships.
And back in the stone ages we had VSAM.
Lol, of course you're right!
He'll get a laugh out of that, as did I. In 7th grade I had a science teacher who taught me an invaluable lesson:
"If you want a good answer, ask a good question."
I stand chastized for not defining my terms more explicitly. 🙂
>> That's part of the point. They used their unfettered power to punish according to their whim.
Agreed, but probably a different outcome for her if she had not lied.
@SteveF
Have to disagree with that one. An immersion coil with battery clips would be more efficient, as electrical connections would be better, 100% of the heat loss would be into the water being heated, and the pan itself would never be hotter than the water. A heavy pan would make questionable electrical contact, be hotter than the water being heated, and lose some heat out the bottom to the air.
In my experience, about a third of the people in Mensa would. Welcome to the club.
Cousin Dan elaborates:
Here's a rough draft that I'm going to start sending when I unsubscribe from lists that send me emails titled:
"A Solar Generator Worth It's Weight in Gold!"
Dear Sir or Madam or _____,
I understand that you need advertising to get clicks to generate funds.
Unfortunately, as the song says: "I have no more focks to give."
I clicked and read until I got to the part that says "at only 40 pounds".
The current value of 40 pounds of gold is $848,000. That's for Troy pounds, which are a bit lighter than the avoirdupois that your generator is weighed in, but close enough. I didn't do the endless scroll/clicking to get to a cost, but I'm sure it's at least 100 times less.
So, fail.
Your power claims aren't any more accurate, but failing once is enough.
Please take me off your mailing list.
>> Have to disagree with that one. An immersion coil with battery clips would be more efficient, as electrical connections would be better, 100% of the heat loss would be into the water being heated, and the pan itself would never be hotter than the water.
But you'd miss out on the exploding battery!
@Alan
"Agreed, but probably a different outcome for her if she had not lied."
Probably. But fascists will always find an opportunity to train the oppressed to expect power to be applied arbitrarily and without recourse. If not her, then someone else. The only question is at what point do others start getting the message, and will it be too late?
@Alan
"But you'd miss out on the exploding battery!"
Probably wouldn't explode–a heavy pot is probably enough of a resistance load. Probably.
There's an old trick to starting a car in the cold with a dead battery: Dead short the terminals. Pair of pliers works. I've heard it can be done with your hand, but never tried it.
When shorted the energy is dissipated by the internal resistance of the battery, generating heat and warming the battery. The higher temp makes some additional stored electrical energy available, which might, maybe, give you enough to start the vehicle.
But if you miss, the battery will be nearly impossible to jump and have to get warmed up to be recharged. In the worst case, it may be permanently dead.
>> Probably wouldn't explode–a heavy pot is probably enough of a resistance load. Probably.
A Sears Craftsman box wrench isn't. I know from experience.
"A Sears Craftsman box wrench isn't. I know from experience."
I bought a truckload of pallet racking from a closed Sears store a few years ago. In the course of tagging fixtures I looked in a barrel that turned out to be 3/4 full of Craftsman tools turned in for warranty replacement. I could have happily spent an hour looking at abused tools, but didn't have time or authorization.
Friend of mine was sitting on a golf cart when the battery exploded. I was 50 yards away and recognized the sound instantly. He was closer, and a bit shook up.
Interesting turn of events…
https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/04/media/cnn-fires-chris-cuomo/index.html
Two down and a freaking bridge to rename:
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/12/the-week-in-pictures-the-new-new-deviant-edition.php
I have to disagree with your disagreement. I said the metal pot was the easiest. I explicitly stated that it was not the best.
@SteveF
Yeah, I thought about that objection. But by the time you get a pot picked out that you want to use (and maybe sacrifice) and get your water warm with all the heat loss, the teacups will be washed up.
OTOH, given the revised situation–on the road with a roof-mounted solar panel–I think we're both SOL.
Hadn't seen this website:
https://www.boredpanda.com/wholesome-boyfriend-husband-gifts
Curious cousin laughs with you, @SteveF
For anyone interested in a discussion a tad bit removed from the ills of 'Arsociety', curious cousin wants to know the "easiest" way to heat a quart of water given that he has 1000W (not 100, as previously stated) solar panels and a couple of deep cycle marine (24v) batteries in his ancient Lexus, which may or may not be navigating the Eastern Sierra and states nearby.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/rJt4T9UaSSXZArzY7
~jim, I'm almost positive there used to be water heaters you'd plug into the cigarette lighter outlet. This would be back in the 1970s or 1980s. They were intended for heating a mug of water, not a quart, but in an insulated container they might do the trick. If they still exist.
Of course.
https://www.amazon.com/Electric-Portable-Stainless-Indicator-Beverage/dp/B07WNV7D1D//p?tag=ttgnet-20
Curious cousin and I like brainstorming and bu11shitting around. The pan across the terminals is funny because it's off the wall and original. Who knows where these ideas lead?
FYI, he also has a store of propane aboard the Lexusmobile.
Been watching "Lost" on Hulu after a trip to Sam's Club and Walmart with half of Sugar Land this afternoon. The wife started watching it and so I am two episodes behind her. We never watched it before and it is wild.
Wife is busy packing for next weekend's back packing trip with D1. They are just walking and camping on the GS camp, no hills or anything.
I went to the garage to get some Mountain House, and the damnable rats had eaten ANOTHER two cases of pouches. From the back side, so I couldn't see it. And they walked past three traps sitting on the boxes to do so.
I'm upping the poison count.
n