Warm. Damp and warm. Who knew? No rain but some very low clouds. Or heavy mist. Well, that was yesterday so I expect today will be like that. Unless it isn’t.
Had a busy day. Got myself and the kids to the dentist. Teeth all cleaned, treated, and apparently rubberized. The last to decrease sensitivity? It sure felt rubbery.
Picked up two lots at different auctions, one of leather crafts stuff, one of needful things.
Went by my local auctioneer, dropped off a couple of things. Talked about the poor sales. He’s going to recycle the unsold stuff one more time. And he doesn’t want any more stuff until he sees if it sells. It could be that his audience just doesn’t want estate stuff, but new and open box stuff. In which case, I’m screwed because I was counting on moving a bunch more stuff through his auction. He did agree to take the TVs from my client’s upgrade.
Went out to my client’s and did the port forwarding. Don’t know yet if it worked, or was correct. Did some more install and working in the rack. Removed some more of the old TVs.
And today will look pretty similar to that. I’ve got a visit to the gub store planned, drop off the TVs, and head out to my client’s.
All the while, hoping that the chinese real estate ponzi doesn’t burn up like a paper tiger soaked in lighter fluid, and bring the rest crashing down. SOMETHING has to be the trigger. China distracting its people from their paper wealth vanishing by getting all nationalistic and militaristic isn’t unthinkable. And real economic woes could easily spread worldwide. It’s always something.
So I stack. And I think you should too.
nick
I'm having a battle with global postage authorities.
I backed a campaign on IndieGogo, never mind what for. Unfortunately, when the creator offered to ship, I had to tell them my postal address, which I have no problem with. The problem was, I made a typo.
Comes now delivery time. Because of that (1 character!) typo. the Post Office, here in UK, couldn't deliver to me, so they "delivered" to a local, "store it for a while, before shipping it back" company. That wouldn't be a problem, except that the PO marked it "delivered" in the tracking. That, and the fact that the only way to amend anything under these circumstances is for the originating logistics company to tell my Postie to do it. So it is claimed.
And, of course, the originating logistics peeps are standing on the letter of "delivered" and saying they can't do anything. This is in China.
Meanwhile, my Postie says they can't do it either, and they claim that it's out of their hands.
Eventually, the package will be "returned to sender" – this year, next year, sometime, never. Meanwhile, I'm out £150 of goods, that I can't put my hands on. because The System says "No".
Shades of Kafka. And all for an omitted character in my address.
I should note that the creator is innocent in all of this, barring the endemic late fulfilment that seems inherent in crowdfunding. It’s the logistics companies involved in the shipping.
I’m going to have to argue with my Postie, all over again. I do not expect success.
G.
I had a delivery this week. Went to the neighbor across the street. Fortunately, he is honest as the day (in summer) is long.
Not familiar with
“here in UK, couldn’t deliver to me, so they “delivered” to a local, “store it for a while, before shipping it back” company.”
here in the States.
We do have the Amazon “shipped” scam where Amazon puts it on a pallet and then let’s it sit until they are good and ready to move it out the door. And the “delivered” scam where Amazon and others mark it as delivered even though it is merely transferred into the hands of what ever company may be actually transporting the last mile.
At some point people will be tired of the games and petition for a uniform FTC (Federal Trade Commission) definition of both.
In the meantime, eBay sellers are experiencing the expertise of that company in clutching money without letting go until they have too. Years ago they bought PayPal, made it required for payments, and drove the valuation of the company into the billions before they sold it. Last year they forced everyone to use their new “managed payments” system (no more PayPal for sellers, although buyers can use it to pay) so now they have a delay between the buyer paying and the seller being able to get funds.
Forwarding which ports? SSH? HTTPS?
I've ranted many times here about RDP on the open Internet. Scanning for those packets was part of our system at the now previous job.
Our theory was that it was the basis for a lot of ransomware attacks. RDP and TeamViewer.
TeamViewer must have a zero day that no one knows about yet.
Well, at least, no one willing to talk who is involved in the security community.
Unusually warm here in Indian country. Normally we have had our first snow by Thanksgiving.
It's dropped below freezing only a couple of times and today the high will be in the 70s again.
A lot has happened to me and with me in the last few months but I may be ready to resume reading and posting. We will see.
Greetings, Harold. Hope things are well with you, or at least tolerable.
One of my external disk drives, a WD, 3 TB, is giving me the click of death. I store off-computer backups on that drive. I also have a second drive that I use. Time to get a new drive involved. I try and keep two disk drives off-computer with my files on those drives. In a few years I hope to be able to get 2 TB SSD external drives for less than $100.00. At which time I would like to retire the spinning platters of rust.
DevOps
I am currently doing a job search with no expectation of being successful (No young or early middle-aged manager is going to hire a 67-year-old techie). When my unemployment runs out, I’ll probably just quit looking. I’d take a good job if one came along, but at this point I’m resigned to retiring.
lt’s amazing how many people want lengthy Agile development experience. And what’s funny to me is that I could probably BS my way through that part. I did the precursor to Agile, which was at the time called “Spiral Development” in the 1990’s. And at my last gig, we implemented DevOps and scrums. It was a half-way* implementation, but enough to check the boxes, I suppose.
*I was going to use another word, but I’m trying to remain family friendly.
Taiwan and ”The Short Victorious War”?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Short_Victorious_War
76F and 90%RH. Warm and damp.
added– that was at 6am, it’s 80 and 80 now. I never hit post.
Forwarding which ports? SSH? HTTPS?
—nope, for the control system IDE to talk to the control hardware. Don't know or care what sort of security or obscurity is involved, programmer needs it to turn $40K in hardware into a control system.
50001, fwiw, and 5004 for the camera remote app.
n
@harold, glad to hear from you. I was quite a bit past worried, to resigned… even checked obits….
n
Go back about a dozen years, and all the managers and senior developers received "Agile" training at big companies. Hot skillz!
Plus, by buying into the management fad, the defense contractors get to hire quota fillers as "Scrum Masters". My wife's friend works for one big DoD boondoggle company with that title, and she took nearly six years to finish an English degree with a lousy GPA.
And she wonders why the programmers hate her.
If you didn't have any other issues with management at the hospital, have you reached out to see what the current mindset is there?
Nick, local Estate Sale companies will often take stuff like you have and add it in when they need to fill a small estate. Some do auctions and some do straight estate sales. With either one, it pretty much guarantees that the stuff does not come back home.
That might be an outlet for your vintage stuff that is too large or not valuable enough to move through eBay. With estate sales, the higher-than-auction prices received on the best stuff will make up for the reduced last-day prices for the remainder. The stuff still in your storage is going to be “fresh” merchandise to the local market and that will make it specially appealing to them
TCP? The router doesn't offer SSH on the WAN for tunneling?
Just tell the programmer to avoid WiFi, even at home.
Sorry, forwarded ports make me nervous. I only have one for Bittorrent.
Welcome back, Harold! I was just thinking the other night that I had not seen any posts from you for a while. Glad to see you.
That age discrimination is a real failure in young managers. It is a prevalent failing, esp among people who didn't grow up having healthy grandparents to keep them from stereotyping.
In my work life, I had several over-60 and a few over-70 employees. Some were in physical plant maintenance which meant heavy physical work, and some were in various internet jobs from customer service to tech. In general, older workers are the best you can get in my experience.
@greg, I don't have any idea what the actual protocols are. Crestron is a pretty big company with customers from home users to DoD, and Fortune 50 and everything in between. Whatever they use, it's likely to be as secure as it can be. Certainly have been enough eyes looking at it over the decades.
When the programmer works on the system, I've got no idea how he actually connects at his end, but hard wire ethernet is most likely from his desk. At the client's end, it's all hard wire between boxes. Standard wifi for the ipads to operate the system, and any guests in the house. Client really doesn't do much of anything else online.
n
I suppose it depends on the job, but yes, often true. However, older workers do tend to be less interested in training, and also less tolerant of MBA idiocy.
In a job I started when I was 49, I was older than my boss and his boss. They were initially worried that I would somehow resent this. I didn't see why I should care, so it wasn't an issue. But then, they were good managers.
Granted, there is a problem, but tech is filled with what I call "Wallys" who got lucky decades ago and just kept their heads down. These days they want to be "ROJ" (Retired On Job) and you really have to be careful with hiring.
The Wally on my previous previous job was ROJ to the point that he had the Caddy coupe, tweed hat, driving gloves, and a tendency to bounce every afternoon at 4PM, heading home to his planned tenbagger investment starter house in one of the new developments south of Downtown Austin.
While I had my own issues with management from Day One, what got me terminated was two f-bombs in an internal meeting — not in front of customers — in response to Wally dropping the ball with regard to getting his work done on an important demo.
Even though I was expressing general frustration, Wally felt I attacked him “viciously, personally” and complained to HR. The State of Texas eventually vacated the termination as being "for cause", partially because HR was so embarrassed that they didn’t even show up for the phone hearing.
Scott Adams nails tech employment in Dilbert, particularly telecom since he worked at PacBell. Wally is funny … until you have to work with that mess.
How the War on Fossil Fuels Will Kill People… Urea Edition
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/12/10/how-the-war-on-fossil-fuels-will-kill-people-urea-edition/
The Haber-Bosch process is used to make ammonia. Coal and natural gas are used as feedstock. Sun and wind power cannot substitute.
Ammonia is the basis for modern agriculture with synthetic fertilizer.
Understanding these facts should be required for anyone seeking public office higher than dog catcher.
The graph in the above article tells the story: No ammonia and food production collapses, the world population shrinks by 20%, and the food available to those remaining is less and much different (ie, no meat).
The next time some green weenie wants to talk energy policy, ask what the implications are for the Haber-Bosch process and world production of ammonia.
That's the real problem, I think.
Yep. Been there, done that, dug the shallow grave in the scrubland behind the building.
I'm guessing you've never tried bringing facts, numbers, or logic into a dispute with a watermelon or other leftard. It's pointless. They lack the brainpower to comprehend reality and they lack the honesty to admit that their vision of "what should be, for reasons" may not work because of reality.
Ammonia is better than bleach for mopping a hard surface … like a hospital floor.
Bad things happen in hospitals when the mops stop moving. The hospital where my wife rounds once a month has a whole wing closed due to mold that developed after Covid resulted in cutbacks to janitorial services in "unused" areas.
"LAX-Bound Flight Makes Emergency Landing In OKC After Man Assaults Flight Attendant, Air Marshal"
https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2021/12/10/passenger-detained-during-after-assaulting-an-air-marshal-and-flight-attendant/
"So… this just happened on our plane from D.C. to LAX two seats in front of me. He was yelling about BLM and being enslaved by the white man. We had to emergency land in Oklahoma so the federal police could come take him off. Our five hour flights turned into 8 hours."
Wow, they made a mistake and put a picture of the guy on the news release. He does not look to be Amish. This is why I don't want to fly anymore because of being cooped up with crazy people like this.
And I feel sorry for the flight crews having to deal with crazy people like this. They are already busy enough flying the plane, they should not have to deal with crazy people too.
Hat tip to:
https://drudgereport.com/
I guess that's one solution, but I'd prefer that my adversaries live a long time with their shame.
Of course, Wally feels no shame.
What really sucks for my former co-workers who are still there is that our Wally passed the more stringent hiring process we had in place prior to Covid. The senior engineers hired after him, including another one in his 60s, met a lower set of standards, and we even hired one individual who was canned from an old school media company after only a month in their C-suite without asking questions.
At least, I was not allowed to ask.
"City Life Damages Mental Health in Ways We’re Just Starting to Understand"
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/city-life-damages-mental-health-in-ways-we-re-just-starting-to-understand
"Urban dwellers are particularly at risk from the impacts of air pollution and other hazards on mental health."
I think just being cooped up in tight quarters makes people go crazy. And maybe this is why city dwellers turn into such voters for freebies from Uncle Sam. And they want the rest of us to lose our basic rights !
The video makes him look Amish.
Not that it really matters — it is all about how a person identifies these days.
Pre-covid, the "therapy animals" were out of control, and the airlines were too cowardly to act.
@SteveF
You’re entirely correct about the green weinies, but it’s their audience that needs to hear it. It’s not sufficient to point out that they don’t know shiite. It’s more worthwhile to prove it. This does it succinctly and is particularly effective when done in a recorded public venue.
How the War on Fossil Fuels Will Kill People… Urea Edition
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/12/10/how-the-war-on-fossil-fuels-will-kill-people-urea-edition/
The Haber-Bosch process is used to make ammonia. Coal and natural gas are used as feedstock. Sun and wind power cannot substitute.
Ammonia is the basis for modern agriculture with synthetic fertilizer.
Understanding these facts should be required for anyone seeking public office higher than dog catcher.
The graph in the above article tells the story: No ammonia and food production collapses, the world population shrinks by 20%, and the food available to those remaining is less and much different (ie, no meat).
The next time some green weenie wants to talk energy policy, ask what the implications are for the Haber-Bosch process and world production of ammonia.
Liquid ammonia is a "cash crop" that can be loaded on a freighter and sold just about anywhere in the world, just like gasoline and diesel. Everyone in the know is willing to buy liquid ammonia, aka fertilizer.
The other thing that the green weenies are not considering is plastic. Half of the USA plastic is made in Point Comfort, Texas at the Formosa Plastics Company (yes, Formosa is another name for Taiwan as they are a Taiwan company). They make about 200 million tons of plastic pellets a year. They are bringing trains 3 and 4 on line and will be doubling that production rate very soon. All by extracting ethylene from natural gas and chloride from sea water.
Pearls Before Swine: Hardware Upgrade Requirements
https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2021/12/10
Yup, that requirement sucks.
RIP Nez.
No Mike Nesmith = no Monkees, MTV, or PBS Home Video.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/rip-michael-nesmith-the-monkees-singer-and-guitarist/ar-AARGXMJ
Nick et all … thanks for the concern. It's been quite a journey.
My wife died in April and the Universe pressed RESET on my life. Everything changed. At first I simply moped around the house like a zombie. Then my brothers recommended I visit them in California where we grew up. I drove out in June and spent most of the summer with them. One of them introduced me to my old college flame. She had been divorced for a while and invited me out. Fast forward to December. I find I simply can't stay in the house we had in Oklahoma, too many memories. I can't be here for any holidays, serious depression. I'm buying a place in California, liquidating all my property except for my ATM business. My brothers are retired and we will be able to travel together. And I am now dating for the first time in almost 50 years, really weird experience at my age. We are spending new years together at Disneyland, the happiest place on earth. I am also in therapy to help me deal with all the changes. Seriously, it feels like my life was reset. I have no debts, no responsibilities, and a decent income. I am finding that my interests have been reset too. I am back doing photography like I did at 18, riding my Harley like I used to, and planing travel. Christmas with my brothers in Novato, New Years with my girlfriend in Disneyland, in March I have a solo Mediteraian cruise and we are talking about spring in Paris (Disney Paris).
I abandoned all news and social media for over 6 months. I find that I am much happier now. I don't worry about politics, or much of anything. I have dropped over 40 pounds and my blood sugar is solidly under control. I have never felt better in my life. My goal is to use my remaining time to enjoy my life and spread joy and happiness to all I can. I will likely complete the move to California in June, staying here in Indian country only long enough to get the maximum benefits from free Indian health care.
I have given up most prepping as I realized I am too old to live in the woods if SHTF.
My best wishes to all here on this board as I have really enjoyed learning from all of you. There is a HUGE knowledge and experience base here.
The video makes him look Amish.
Not that it really matters — it is all about how a person identifies these days.
Pre-covid, the "therapy animals" were out of control, and the airlines were too cowardly to act.
That guy was trying to start a riot on a commercial airplane. I have never seen an Amish try to start a riot.
"Michael Nesmith of the Monkees Dies at 78"
https://www.chron.com/entertainment/article/Michael-Nesmith-of-the-Monkees-Dies-at-78-16691478.php
Looks like the Last Train To Clarksville is almost ready to head out.
Sorry about your loss. I cannot even begin to comprehend.
You have established a noble goal. Removing negativity from your life and enjoying what you have left is, in my opinion, the correct option. Spend time doing what you enjoy, spend money on enjoyment rather than stuff, turn away from and ignore people that are negative.
If the SHTF, as Frank Sinatra said, “I did it my way”.
Dear Harold, very glad to have you back. Sincere condolences on your bereavement, and very best wishes to you in putting your life back on a livable footing!
I'm guessing you've never tried bringing facts, numbers, or logic into a dispute with a watermelon or other leftard. It's pointless. They lack the brainpower to comprehend reality and they lack the honesty to admit that their vision of "what should be, for reasons" may not work because of reality.
Most leftards just start yelling at the top of their lungs "you are stupid".
Just finished publishing a book of Physics Jokes on the Zon. Paperback is ready, but the hardback is on hold because of copyright issues (I just grabbed a bunch of jokes from the interwebs…figured that jokes are not really copyrightable stuff.). Same content on both. I figure that the hardback will be ready by tomorrow. Probably just an automated hold, since the paperback went through OK after an initial automated hold.
It's a Christmas present for my new grandson-in-law, who is studying to be a physicist. There are jokes in there that he will need to explain to me.
I also published the same hardback book privately on Lulu.com. That should arrive before we arrive in UT after Christmas. I've found Lulu printing to be quite good.
I ordered some 'author' copies from Zon, and they said delivery the first week of Jan; a reasonable time. Book is here, if you are slightly interested. https://amzn.to/3rTRC9S .
I ordered some 'author' copies from Zon, and they said delivery the first week of Jan; a reasonable time. Book is here, if you are slightly interested. https://amzn.to/3rTRC9S .
My copy is due to arrive this Sunday.
Yep. Been there, done that, dug the shallow grave in the scrubland behind the building.
I was tempted, very tempted. Wally was the product manager and group manager of the engineering software I was working on from 1989 to 1992. He was so incompetent that he estimated that the product would be shipped in 1991. He was fired in 1993. We dropped the product in 1995.
Me and the woman team leader were the only programmers that truly understood C code. Version 1 of the software was written in Fortran. I was part of the effort to bring the old Fortran code (the user interface code) onto the new C database code. It was a freaking disaster since there were so many memory leaks. Mr. Product Manager threatened me when I start fixing memory leaks in the new C database code. I ignored him and got a single database query from five minutes !!!! to five seconds by putting the first calls to free in the code. He actually went into his office and cried.
@lynn – thanks for ordering my goofy little book. I ordered a 'regular' copy, and it is supposed to arrive Dec 15th also.
"Author" copies are the same as a 'regular' (public) order, but they usually have a lower ship priority than retail sales, so they take longer.
I published it via Lulu for the new grandson-in-law. Figured that as long as I was putting it together, I'd stick it on the Zon also. Don't expect it to be a 'runaway best seller', although it's always nice to be surprised.
Our lead at the Death Star solved leaks by creating large char arrays on the stack and using those for buffers. It worked kinda-sorta on Win32, but was a complete disaster on iOS in the early days when memory was strictly limited on the iPhone.
The development model is still a disaster on the iPhone, but most hardware in users' hands has a lot of RAM so that signal from the phone to free memory held by the app rarely arrives in the event queue anymore thanks to Moore's Law and Automatic Reference Counting in the Objective C layers.
I saw my first copy of Purify in the early 90s. I used that to resolve a lot of memory leaks on our Sun and SGI code at GTE. IBM bought them out and screwed up the product in the early 2000s, but, by that time, Sun and SGI were also-rans in the Unix market as Linux took over.
Linux has Valgrind and decent static analysis in the compilers.
"Biden’s Full Plate — Ukraine, Taiwan, Tehran"
https://buchanan.org/blog/bidens-full-plate-ukraine-taiwan-tehran-158831
"As Putin may see his destiny and legacy as returning Ukraine into a closer union with Russia, so Chinese President Xi Jinping seems to see his crowning achievement in the return of Taiwan to the motherland after almost a century of separation."
Biden, don't send my son to Ukraine, Taiwan, or Tehran, you old fool !
My son can be called up until he is 45 since he was promoted to a non-commissioned officer in the US Marine Corps when he did not re-up after his eight years. He got a letter about a month after his enlistment ended. He has seven years to go. The Marine Corps has asked for his current address and phone number, he has refused to supply them. He is technically in violation of the conscription act.
@Harold: My concurrence the all the condolences above.
Also, I am in Southern California, about 30 min, SE of Disneyland. Specifically, in Orange County, Huntington Beach about 1 1/5 miles from Pacific Coast. Let me know when you get here and PBRs are on me.
The best of life to you, Mr. Harold.
My son can be called up until he is 45 since he was promoted to a non-commissioned officer in the US Marine Corps when he did not re-up after his eight years.
I enjoy serving at the Pleasure of the President for the rest of my life. Knowing plugs, he’d call up geezers as old as him with no problem.
Let’s Go Brandon!Fcuk Joe Biden!
Skulking around the Accutrain conference in Atlanta all day. I get to sell books all day tomorrow while MrsAtoz does her thing.
Boring day until…
Jussie Smollett guilty on 4-5 charges. About time. Shit gonna hit the fan in Chitown.
And the LOLs on Smollett:
Reporter: Does plugs regret his statement rushing to judgement on Jussie…
Psaki: tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump tRump,
tho.
>> Bronco Boy retired. Somebody else is running Amazon now. Bronco Boy is building spaceships now.
Not quite retired, just stepped down as Amazon CEO, replaced by AWS Andy Jassy. Jeff is now Executive Chairman of Amazon's board. While certainly less involved, I'm sure Jassy still runs the important stuff past Jeff.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/26/jeff-bezos-to-formally-step-down-as-amazon-ceo-on-july-5.html
One consequence of Bronco Boy retiring is that "The Expanse" tv show on Amazon is going to be retired at the sixth book even though there are nine books now.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B09LGJ5QNB//p?tag=ttgnet-20
The final Expanse book (I am one or two books behind this one):
https://www.amazon.com/Leviathan-Falls-Expanse-James-Corey/dp/0316332917//p?tag=ttgnet-20
>> …eating raw cookie dough…
Other options:
https://www.pillsbury.com/products/safe-to-eat-raw
https://www.target.com/p/toll-house-edible-cookie-dough-chocolate-chip-15oz/-/A-79642133
https://www.target.com/p/betty-crocker-edible-chocolate-chip-cookie-dough-12-2oz/-/A-79611822
>> I’m going to have to argue with my Postie, all over again. I do not expect success.
@Geoff, have you tried starting at the top? I've had success getting action to sticky problems by writing to the involved company's CEO. For Royal Mail I believe that's Simon Thompson. Of course the irony here is that you have to hope your letter reaches him.
>> At some point people will be tired of the games and petition for a uniform FTC (Federal Trade Commission) definition of both.
If only we could affect change of the Federal government through citizen-initiated ballot propositions. The list is so long, plus it would scare the cr@p out of many Congress critters. And while we're at it, why not include the ability to recall the President and the VP.
>> We do have the Amazon “shipped” scam where Amazon puts it on a pallet and then let’s it sit until they are good and ready to move it out the door. And the “delivered” scam where Amazon and others mark it as delivered even though it is merely transferred into the hands of what ever company may be actually transporting the last mile.
The Zon’s gotta keep up their pretenses so that folks keep renewing their Prime subscriptions.
>> In the meantime, eBay sellers are experiencing the expertise of that company in clutching money without letting go until they have too. Years ago they bought PayPal, made it required for payments, and drove the valuation of the company into the billions before they sold it. Last year they forced everyone to use their new “managed payments” system (no more PayPal for sellers, although buyers can use it to pay) so now they have a delay between the buyer paying and the seller being able to get funds.
People need to wake up and ‘vote’ with their wallets. If you’re a buyer go instead to auctions, Craigslist, FB Marketplace, Amazon, etc. and boycott eBay. Of course we both know that there’s too many people on the wrong end of the IQ curve to effect change this way.
Dang, I’m tired of Covid-19 and the economy and civil strife and war alarums and stupid politicians.
Anyone else looking forward to settling in with a good book or two over Christmas?
Here are a few I’m looking forward to reading:
Leviathan Falls (Expanse #9), James S.A. Corey
Arctic Sea (Lenson #21), David Poyer
Risen (Alex Verus #12], Benedict Jacka
White Gold of Empire (Merchants & Empire #6), Alma Boykin
>> Wally is funny … until you have to work with that mess.
Yep. Been there, done that, dug the shallow grave in the scrubland behind the building.
Yeah, but the question is, did you follow through and fill it?
>> A lot has happened to me and with me in the last few months but I may be ready to resume reading and posting. We will see.
@hcombs, Harold, condolences on your loss, but also enlightening to hear all the positive steps you're taking. Hope you decide to hang around here, even if it's to drop in on occasion and just say hello. Good luck and safe travels.
I'm currently reading Paradise Lost, which is horrid, and Feminism, and the Fall of the West, which is not bad though I'm only 10% in. I have several history books queued up and a couple novels which I bought more because I'm supporting the author than because I needed another contemporary novel to read. (I'm also reading several technical articles for professional purposes, which should go without saying.)
Paradise Lost being on the list is not simple masochism, though it may appear that way on a casual look. I'm reading the Harvard Bookshelf front to back, no skipping unless I read something recently. Despite that intention, I may skip PL and just read a Cliff's Notes; I'd probably get more out of it than from the original text because the original is turgid, overwrought, boringly overdetailed, and wretched. Reading the Cliff's Notes would also let me get through it with few tears, wails, and rending of garments.
Rick, I think the plugin you use to add the ttgnet-20 tag to Amazon links is broken. I just hand-edited my most recent comment because the "a" tag for the link got mangled.
@SteveF – the 'zon affiliate' plugin doesn't work well with links done via the link button, where you put text that is inside the href. As in this <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09MYQ5C2Tlink?tag=ttgnet-20 here – where 'link' is the text showing, and the HREF is behind it.
If you just past the URL, it works OK. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09MYQ5C2T/p?tag=ttgnet-20
As you can see with the above; the beginning href tag is not done properly with the first link. I probably should fix the plugin – as it is mine…
@Alan
"People need to wake up and ‘vote’ with their wallets. If you’re a buyer go instead to auctions, Craigslist, FB Marketplace, Amazon, etc. and boycott eBay. Of course we both know that there’s too many people on the wrong end of the IQ curve to effect change this way."
Amazon is the only company more invested in selling Chinese shiite than eBay. All those containers jammed up have to be taking a toll.
And I saw an online ad this week where Amazon was offering Prime to folks on the goobermint dole for half price.
Got it, Rick. The tag was easily fixed, at least for someone who monkeys with HTML every other day.
>> Wally is funny … until you have to work with that mess.
Yep. Been there, done that, dug the shallow grave in the scrubland behind the building.
"Yeah, but the question is, did you follow through and fill it?"
Why slow the coyotes?
@alan:
I maligned my Postie. Asking another member of the delivery office staf revealed that the return shipper will accept personal visits. So I made a trip.
And even though it's been 2 days since "delivered" status showed in the tracking, this firm couldn't find my parcel, "because it hasn't been scanned in, yet." So I left my name and mobile number, and they claim they will cal me once it's scanned, and I can then tell them the correct address.
I'll believe it when I get the phone call, of course, but things are looking a little more hopeful.
G.
>> Wally is funny … until you have to work with that mess.
Yep. Been there, done that, dug the shallow grave in the scrubland behind the building.
"Yeah, but the question is, did you follow through and fill it?"
As a famous philosopher once said: “Buzzards gotta eat, same as worms”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd_EEFI0PqQ
Risen (Alex Verus #12], Benedict Jacka
White Gold of Empire (Merchants & Empire #6), Alma Boykin
–I've been waiting for an new Alex Verus….
but I don't think I'll have much reading time. I really only get to read if I do it after midnight (which kills me for days) or on vacation when visiting my wife's family. I used to read fiction every day. Miss that.
n
I’ve read most of The Wheel of Time AND Safehold series, I may just be ready for PL now…
I’ve read most of The Wheel of Time AND Safehold series, I may just be ready for PL now…
Nah, you are ready for Worm.
https://parahumans.wordpress.com/
Alex Verus series, Benedict Jacka
Atticus O'Sullivan series, Kevin Hearne
magic shops with real magical proprietors
Don't remember the name, but there's also non-magical detective that runs–a magic shop.
Must have been a good writer's workshop somewhere about 2010: Magic shopkeepers, backstory and character development.
Alex Verus series, Benedict Jacka
Atticus O'Sullivan series, Kevin Hearne
magic shops with real magical proprietors
Don't remember the name, but there's also non-magical detective that runs–a magic shop.
Must have been a good writer's workshop somewhere about 2010: Magic shopkeepers, backstory and character development.
Not Harry Dresden, right ?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0451457811/p?tag=ttgnet-20
Not Harry. Much more recent.
"FAA Goes in Hard to Kill Mid-Band 5G"
https://www.pcmag.com/news/faa-goes-in-hard-to-kill-mid-band-5g
"The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) pulled a near-nuclear option to stop the rollout of $80 billion in new 5G airwaves yesterday, with new regulations that could cause widespread flight delays.
The new regs, as The Verge reports, would limit airplanes' ability to land at airports near C-band 5G equipment in poor weather, based on the agency's assertion that the new 5G frequencies will imperil the use of radio altimeters, which measure airplanes' distance from the ground.
C-band frequencies are key to Verizon and AT&T having any kind of differentiated 5G performance from their 4G systems. Currently, both carriers' "nationwide" 5G runs on former 3G or 4G airwaves, making their 5G performance not much different from 4G, as our Fastest Mobile Networks tests found."
Not Harry. Much more recent.
OK. I put a YASID (yet another story id) at rec.arts.sf.written.
https://groups.google.com/g/rec.arts.sf.written
"Are You Sure You Have A Spare Tire?" Written by Jerry Reynolds
https://www.carprousa.com/blog/spare-tires-are-you-sure-you-have-one
“A caller last Saturday told us the story of his 83-year old Mother buying a new car, and he found out it did not have a spare tire or jack. He had no idea this could happen, but the reality is in cars, odds are higher there will not be a spare tire.
It is December and many of you will be buying new vehicles. Don’t assume the car of your dreams has a spare tire.”
I would say, chances are, you do NOT have a spare tire. If so, get yourself a AAA subscription right now so they lift your vehicle and take it to the local Discount Tire, Sam's Club, Costco, or NTB when you have a blowout.
My last two vehicle purchases do have full size spares amazingly. A 2019 Ford F-150 4×4 and a 2019 Toyota Highlander. My wife had a blowout in her Highlander the other day and got to use her full size spare. She now has four new tires.
Full sized spares on my ranger and both expeditions.
My old ranger got a flat on the highway in Cali once, I pulled over, thought "no problem I'll have this changed in 10 minutes…." but someone had stolen the spare and I didn't notice.
I look at my tires every time I approach the vehicle, and if from the back, I look for the spare. Fool me once…..
n
What? A Florida HOA? I'm shocked. Shocked!
https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida/2021/12/10/florida-hoa-in-hot-water-after-drugged-geese-drown/?itm_source=parsely-api
Welcome back Harold.. Very happy that the "reset" resulted in something positive.
Happy Trails.. 🙂
Just finished publishing a book of Physics Jokes on the Zon
Amazon Au advises my copy will arrive Dec 22.. Just in time for Christmas. (hopefully) 😀
One of Lawrence Watt-Evans' Ethshar books, "The Spriggan Mirror", has a magic supply shop run by a non-magician (but all his sisters are), and he does a good job of detection in the story.
Cheers,
Gary B-)
The latest update in my fight with crowdfunded shipping.
After I managed to convince the (subcontracted) return shipper to watch for, and readdress when seen, the original parcel, comes now email from the IndieGogo project creator. They're shipping me another device, to a confirmed correct address. So I may get it in time for Christmas, or if not, quite soon thereafter.
And there remains the possibility that the return shipper may actually find the original, so I'll get two. Which would be an embarras de richesse, since the whole thing is a man's toy – so much more expensive than the boy's variety.
G.