Fri. Jan. 7, 2022 – still more work. Stacking up the FRNs…

By on January 7th, 2022 in personal, Random Stuff, WuFlu

Warmer during sunlight, cooler to cold during no-sun-light. Freaking 44F when I went to bed, with no fanfare from the weatherliars. For some reason, the A/C was running despite the low outdoor temps. Yesterday was nice during the day but it did get chilly when the sun went away.

Spent the late morning and all the rest of the day working at my client’s house. I did get some things off my list, and we’re finding things we couldn’t find until the other work was done. Programmer is making progress too. The system was about 90% functional when we left for the day. I should be able to actually do some of my lower priority items today. And I can take another whack at some of the networking issues.

Like the wifi coverage. I’m using 4 ubiquiti AC Lite access points that are supposed to have hundreds of feet of coverage. It’s a big house, but FOUR and there are dead spots everywhere. LOTS of metal and brick, heavy plaster treatments on walls, and weird architecture with a lot of angled walls and ‘nooks’, really high ceilings. I need to move pretty much three of the four, and figure out why I don’t have MASSIVE signal levels. Freaking 30 feet from the wap, I can lose the connection. And with the config problems I had, I’m not convinced they are all actually on and working properly. Add the config problems to the physical location problems, and I’ve got my hands full for days if I spend the time fighting it.

We’ll see what I get to while helping the programmer get through his list.

————————————————————————————–

So this week I’m stacking money. Money makes everything easier, and let’s us turn one thing into another. It’s a good prep that often gets downplayed or overlooked. It’s not perfect, you can’t eat it, but it will get you food to eat.

In an inflationary economy, you need all the money you can get, and as quickly as you can get it if you want or need to buy things.

Think about what you’ll do for money if things go even more pear shaped. Got skillz? Got stuff other people want? Control access to something? Got people who know and appreciate that you have the stuff or the skillz? Better to do business with someone known to you than not.

Skills, stuff, or money, stack it as high as you can.

n

(btw, I’m still following my prime directive. My prepping can’t negatively affect my life, and shouldn’t be anything irrevocable. That leaves a lot of room for interpretation, but does provide guidance and a gut check.)

62 Comments and discussion on "Fri. Jan. 7, 2022 – still more work. Stacking up the FRNs…"

  1. nick flandrey says:

    In reply to Brad yesterday–

    So: reduced stocking levels, yes, but not because of supply problems. The previous stocking levels were just too big for the store's turnover.

    in a traditional store the idea has merit, but that's not how costco works.  Costco has a limited number of SKUs, and if an item doesn't earn its square foot cost, they get rid of the item and replace it.   There was no shortage of people waiting to get their product into Costco.

    Costco doesn't stock like a traditional store either.  They don't have shelves, so they don't do a certain number of 'faces' of this brand, vs that brand.  Most items they have one choice of brand, one choice of size, and sometimes they offer their house brand as an alternative.    The cold prepared foods section works a bit differently because they have shelves in the display coolers and not whole pallets, but they don't have 'slow movers'.  Slow movers get pulled overnight and replaced.

    They move stuff around the store all the time.  Vendors pay extra for 'end cap' or end of row placement, items on special sale move to the front, etc.   They even have replaced the dairy and veg coolers with giant walk in coolers where the customer walks in and up to the pallets of product, rather than reaching thru a door to get the product.    That was all prior to any  of the supply chain issues this year.  They are very savvy about managing inventory. 

    And they do restock throughout the day, they are cleaning up the piles on the pallets and replacing pallets constantly.

    I've previously linked to articles describing other stores pulling shelves and spreading out the remaining displays to hide reduced amount of stock and reduced number of SKUs.   I didn't think Costco would have to do the same.

    n

  2. nick flandrey says:

    37F this morning, with 89%RH.   Chilly willy.

    n

  3. Pecancorner says:

    18F up here in Brown County. I got up at 3 and added a couple more logs to the wood stove.  It was chilly in the house because I failed to get up at midnight to add one.   I woke up but forgot to get up… usually in winter I wake every few hours and check the stove but not in the habit yet as it has not been cold enough before last week to keep a night fire going.  

    Tonight, we won’t need a fire because it is only supposed to get down into the 40s, then a high in the 70s tomorrow. LOL crazy Texas winter weather!

  4. Pecancorner says:

    Re that boneless leg of lamb in the pressure cooker/instant pot I asked about the other day: here's how it turned out:

    I browned it on all sides first and used Cavender's Greek Seasoning (we also use Montreal Steak Seasoning on lamb). Then added the water, carrots, onions, and herbs. The recipe called for 25 minutes cook time but I misread that as 41 minutes, and since it was partly frozen, I cooked it on high pressure for 50 minutes, and it was perfect: still pink inside. That kind of surprised me, because I didn't think "rare medium well" was something one could do with that cooking method.    It also surprised me when I read the recipe again and realized I'd doubled the cook time instead of adding 10 minutes! Ooops! 🙂 

    Still, even if it had  been fully cooked, that would not have been a problem because it was very tender and delicious. I'd still rather roast it conventionally, but would use this method again too.

  5. Greg Norton says:

    I need to move pretty much three of the four, and figure out why I don’t have MASSIVE signal levels. Freaking 30 feet from the wap, I can lose the connection.

    As I suggested for Ray recently, check the channel bandwidths, particularly on 5 GHz. In an urban environment, with both neighbors and, now, the wireless carriers making heavy use of the unlicensed spectrum, 80 MHz channels just aren't going to work.

    Everybody wants their Baby Yoda on the go so the unlicensed spectrum is turning into a classic "tragedy of the commons".

    Plus Ubiquiti is clearly having staffing issues wherever they develop their firmware so I'd start considering alternative vendors. I cover a decent sized house with one stock Asus and as many devices as possible on Ethernet, MOCA, or HomePlug wired connections.

    Of course, if development takes place in the US, *everyone* is going to have staffing issues come Monday morning if the Supreme Court rules in favor of mandates.

    Someone is going to be very unhappy on Monday. If Biden loses, they will know their reign by fear is over so BOHICA.

  6. nick flandrey says:

    @pecancorner, that sounds lovely.   We like the boneless roast kinda crispy on the outside and red to really red on the inside.   We are fortunate in recent times to have really great lamb that you can eat at any doneness, including rare.   The aussies have done great things with lanolin-less breeds, etc.

    I read somewhere that throughout history humans spent only short periods asleep and work frequently.  I guess getting up to keep the fire going has a long history….

    I've been wearing a fitness tracker to see what my sleep looks like.   I wake up (or have enough movement the thing thinks I'm awake) much more than I thought I did.   I'm looking for patterns now, to see what is disturbing me so much more on some nights.

    Some days I wake up and know that I was wrestling in my sleep all night, and I'm as weary as if I didn't sleep at all.

    n

  7. nick flandrey says:

    @greg, thanks I'll take a look at the channels.   He's way out in the country on acreage, so neighbors are not an issue.  I don't see any other access points even using the tools in the ubiquiti nano that is outdoors and facing a neighbor.

    I do know there are other vendors onsite using wifi, and I'll have to look at them.  The alarm company and pool company both have gateways for their scada stuff.  I THOUGHT that modern APs were supposed to negotiate channels by themselves though.   The days of manually moving off '6' are supposed to be over.

    I need to figure out the nest t-stats too, all three broadcast an ssid, "new_thermostatxxxxyyxxxxx"   so maybe they are congesting the spectrum.

    I think the main issue is obstructions.  There are pockets of no coverage that are less than 3ftx3ft square, all within 20-30 feet of the ap.    One of them happens to be the client's office desk, which is no bueno.

    n

  8. Pecancorner says:

    We like the boneless roast kinda crispy on the outside and red to really red on the inside.   We are fortunate in recent times to have really great lamb that you can eat at any doneness, including rare.   The aussies have done great things with lanolin-less breeds, etc.

    We usually go for medium rare to medium, but yep we love that crispy outside too.  And I wondered why the fat is more edible on this than the old lambchops I used to buy for Anniversary dinners:  didn't know there was a difference between Australian and American lamb. That's good to know.  20 years ago we'd have to carefully trim the fat off of chops. I still don't eat lamb fat unless it's fully rendered but back then even that still had that flavor. I love lanolin as a skin cream, but eeeeeww don't like eating it! 

  9. nick flandrey says:

    Yep, that's why you see the big ribs and big chops now, they can let the animal get bigger without the 'mutton' taste becoming so prominent. 

    There are Canadians growing the sheep too.  I first read about the difference in a Canadian newspaper while I was up there for work.

    As a data point, aussie lamb roast, boneless in vac pack was $8/lbs at Costco the other day.  That's about where it's always been for years. 

    n

  10. nick flandrey says:

    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/tucker-confronts-cruz-calling-jan-6th-terrorist-attack-senator-apologizes-sloppydumb

    –hmmm, I didn't watch his original comments to see the context, just assumed he was playing both sides or trying to appease someone. 

    n

  11. Greg Norton says:

    @greg, thanks I'll take a look at the channels.   He's way out in the country on acreage, so neighbors are not an issue.  I don't see any other access points even using the tools in the ubiquiti nano that is outdoors and facing a neighbor.

    You won't know if the wireless carriers are borrowing unlicensed spectrum unless you run a bandwidth analyzer, but it sounds like house structure is an issue.

  12. Greg Norton says:

    You won't know if the wireless carriers are borrowing unlicensed spectrum unless you run a bandwidth analyzer, but it sounds like house structure is an issue.

    If you don't see "Channel bandwidth" explicitly labelled in the menu for 5 GHz, dig around for a setting which has a value of "20/40/80 MHz".

    Structure can definitely influence which bandwidths work without interference.

    I keep my setting on 20/40 since I have lots of close neighbors, including the sysadmin for various government entities who runs a four node mesh trying to solve the same problem I do with one AP in the same size/basic structure house.

    I’ll bet if he moved, my bandwidth problems would go away.

  13. Ray Thompson says:

    You're showing your age, Ray. "You choose, I choose" is sooooo old fashioned.

    Yeh, well, come say that to my face you young whipper snapper. I will beat you with my cane, throw my false teeth at you, hit you with my bottle of Geritol, stomp you with my corrective shoes, dump my Rogaine on your back, soak up your blood with my Depends, all while adjusting my reading glasses. That will show you who is boss.

    I cover a decent sized house with one stock Asus

    I am using Asus AIMesh with three nodes. Works great I have excellent WiFi throughout the entire house with no dead spots. Easy to set up and manage. It just works. On the other side of the foot my son uses Ubiquiti  in his home. He has four nodes, one outside so his back yard has coverage. His stuff just works. Be bought another node, told the system to find and configure, 5 minutes later it is working.

    Freaking 30 feet from the wap, I can lose the connection. And with the config problems I had, I’m not convinced they are all actually on and working properly

    You need a good cable tester that can test the cable end to end to detect broken pairs or wiring errors. The tester I have will even tell me the length of the cable and if there is a break how many feet from the tester the break is located. I also carry a laptop with a USB to Ethernet adapter so I can plug directly into the remote node to confirm it is working.

    The small dead spots would seem to indicate interference from signals where the waveform from one node is exactly matching the waveform from another node, but 180 degrees out of phase. Not supposed to happen but with metal surfaces and walls who knows. Relocate some access points. Or place wireless node in the office that connects with the mother node wirelessly. One of my nodes is connected wirelessly to the mother node, works like a champ.

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  14. Greg Norton says:

    I am using Asus AIMesh with three nodes. Works great I have excellent WiFi throughout the entire house with no dead spots. Easy to set up and manage. It just works. On the other side of the foot my son uses Ubiquiti  in his home. He has four nodes, one outside so his back yard has coverage. His stuff just works. Be bought another node, told the system to find and configure, 5 minutes later it is working.

    I imagine your house is better built than those in my neighborhood. The houses aren't stucco shacks like a lot of the new developments around us, but they are typical 90s Texas mid-grade construction with interior structure that is mostly wood frame and drywall. Upstairs is dominated by a large, open "bonus room".

  15. nick flandrey says:

    I’ve got an agilent cable verifier to test and categorize installed cable. I can print reports and test every parameter and that the cable passed as Catxx. I don’t use it much anymore but I might take it with me if I can’t solve the issues by moving stuff.

    The ubiquiti APs will mesh to each other as well as using the wired home run to the switch, so physical cabling shouldn’t be an issue. If something gets thru, it should all get thru.

    And with that, I need to be off and actually do some work instead of just talking about doing work. I’m not in a union after all……

    n

  16. brad says:

    We've been using Netgear Orbi. Setup was a PITA, but now it "just works". The only problem I find is that the APs are inside, and there is virtually no reach outside. I guess there's too much metal in the walls and floors, but it's still odd.

    They claim their satellites will connect from an extended range (i.e., farther than the WLAN reaches). Also, we bought a studio apartment in the building behind us – I'd love to be able to use our WiFi from there, rather than paying for a separate connection. The satellites are expensive, so I'll probably buy one, and try it for both applications, to see if it really works as advertised.

    More grading today. Grading awful projects takes a lot longer than the good ones. Did I say that I hate grading?

  17. SteveF says:

    Brad, I don't know if this will work for your workflow in grading papers and projects, but when I edit I'll have the source document open in one window (usually a word processor) and a list of common comments open in another window. I can easily copy-paste "garbled sentence" into the story/article document. (Details vary depending on the source, but if it's a word processor document I usually color my comments depending on the type of comment. These can be pre-colored in my "list" window.) This is much faster than typing each comment as I encounter an issue, even if I need to customize some of the comments.

  18. MrAtoz says:

    If Cruz thinks he can just say “sorry”, he’s wrong. Even the dooshes who threw things at cops aren’t terrorists. BLM’rs get away with that all time. Where’s Cruz? Two WHITE guys get together at the range and the FBI puts them on the domestic WHITE boy terrorist list. Stop using the term *terrorist* as a political bludgeon. It’s as bad as *racist*.

    Call the cop who shot Babbitt a murderer and we’ll be even. Wait, he’s Black, so he gets a bye.

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  19. ech says:

    Trump just has to keep his mouth shut until Sunday at Noon and nothing said today matters.

    …. and he couldn't. 

  20. Greg Norton says:

    If Cruz thinks he can just say “sorry”, he’s wrong. Even the dooshes who threw things at cops aren’t terrorists. BLM’rs get away with that all time. Where’s Cruz? Two WHITE guys get together at the range and the FBI puts them on the domestic WHITE boy terrorist list. Stop using the term *terrorist* as a political bludgeon. It’s as bad as *racist*.

    Rafael Edward doesn't face reelection for nearly three years and he probably hopped a Goldman Sachs jet for his holiday trip this year. A favor like that without any leaks comes at a price.

  21. Alan says:

    >> On top of that, the current audio editing in shows and (especially) movies is terrible. More and more people complain that they cannot understand the dialogue, both because the actors mumble and because the other sounds drown out the voices. Putting in surround sound speakers that let sound effects shake your house – that will only make the problems worse.

    Just another reason we prefer to watch movies at home where we can have the closed captions on. Also pee breaks for us 'older' folks.

    And very little not advertised as available on HBOMax or Prime a few weeks after the theatrical release.

  22. lynn says:

    "Snowman in Flames (Perry Rhodan, 25)" by Clark Darlton, translated by Wendayne Ackerman
       https://www.amazon.com/Snowman-Flames-Perry-Rhodan-66008/dp/B000OEHWDK/br?tag=ttgnet-20 />

    Book number twenty-five 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 1973 that I had to be very careful with due to age. 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 #102, plus the Atlan books.
       https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Rhodan

    BTW, this is actually book number 33 of the German Pamphlets. There is a very good explanation of the plot in German on this website of all of the PR books. There is automatic Google translation available for English, Spanish, Dutch, Japanese, French, and Portuguese.
       https://www.perrypedia.de/wiki/Eiswelt_in_Flammen

    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 over ten years since then and the New Power has flourished with millions of people and many spaceships headquartered in the Gobi desert, the city of Terrania.

    Perry Rhodan has returned to the double star Beta-Albireo system to rescue the three male cadets, the two female students, and Pucky who are marooned on the planet named Snowman. Rhodan was given two new matter transmitters by the Immortal and destroyed many of the Springer space ships with them as they allow the transportation of atomic bombs right through the defensive shields. One of the Springer clans has retreated already but the other clan is still fighting and looking for the Terrans hiding on Snowman. So the patriarch of the Springer clan decides to set the planet Snowman on fire and does so. And Pucky has found a race of intelligent beings on Snowman they named the Semi-Sleepers.

    One has to remember that this book was written in German in 1962 and translated to English in 1973. 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: 5 out of 5 stars
    Amazon rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars (3 reviews)

  23. Alan says:

    Was at our local Sherwin-Williams paint store yesterday picking up a gallon of paint and a few supplies and while checking the receipt before I left I saw that all the supply items (roller covers, masking tape, etc.) had a separate line item tacked on labeled "Supply Chain Charge 4%". Geez.

  24. Greg Norton says:

    And very little not advertised as available on HBOMax or Prime a few weeks after the theatrical release.

    "Spiderman" and "Ghostbusters" are still not available for home video. Sony seems to be managing on the reduced revenue stream somehow.

    "Ghostbusters" did continue the bad audio editing tradition of the last few years. Some of the lines were just unintelligible over the background noise. I blame that on "working" from home — a high quality pair of headphones isn't the same as going to Skywalker Sound or similar remixing facilities.

  25. Greg Norton says:

    Trump just has to keep his mouth shut until Sunday at Noon and nothing said today matters.

    …. and he couldn't. 

    What format? Unless it is a video clip that the Sunday shows like "This Week With George Snuffleupagus" can blast in their cold open, he's won the week.

    Even an audio interview with Hannity wouldn’t cut it.

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  26. lynn says:

    Oh no, I am in moderation jail again. And only four URLs this time.

  27. Greg Norton says:

    Tyler Durden cowardice protecting honest reporting about the ignorance of The Wise Latina.

    I can kinda-sorta understand Obama putting Hermione Granger (Kagan) on the Court, but The Wise Latina still mystifies me … well, beyond p*ssing off conservatives.

    https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/live-supreme-court-weigh-biden-vaccine-mandate

  28. lynn says:

    Freefall: AI Programming

       http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff3700/fc03694.htm

    Note to self: Should I ever have to program an AI, be sure to program in a module for handling awkward human situations.

  29. lynn says:

    Pearls Before Swine: Entering A Store

        https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2022/01/07

    What about entering a store with a Rat and a Pig ?

  30. lynn says:

    “Five Hypothetical Reasons Aliens Would Bother Visiting Earth” by James Nicoll
    https://www.tor.com/2022/01/07/five-hypothetical-reasons-aliens-would-bother-visiting-earth/

    Out of the five books, I have read “The Forge Of God”. I would add another reason for aliens visiting the Earth, their spaceships crashed in the Solar System and they need a place to land to fix them. Or to give up and assimilate.

    1. Perry Rhodan #1, “Enterprise Stardust”
    https://www.amazon.com/Enterprise-Stardust-Perry-Rhodan-Scheer/dp/B0007I83EU/

    2. “Mutineer’s Moon” by David Weber
    https://www.amazon.com/Mutineers-Moon-Dahak-David-Weber/dp/0671720856/

    3. “Human by Choice” by Dr. Travis S Taylor
    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1606190474/

  31. Greg Norton says:

    Note to self: Should I ever have to program an AI, be sure to program in a module for handling awkward human situations.

    The people who program AIs generally aren't the best at handling awkward human situations.

  32. lynn says:

    "Kamala Harris admits there is a 'level of malaise' two years into the pandemic and America 'wants to get back to normal' – drawing comparisons to Jimmy Carter's infamous 1979 speech"

        https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10379439/Kamala-Harris-admits-level-malaise-two-years-pandemic.html

    Oh my goodness, Kamala Harris is the female version of Jimmah Carter.

    Hat tip to:

       https://www.drudgereport.com/

  33. lynn says:

    Note to self: Should I ever have to program an AI, be sure to program in a module for handling awkward human situations.

    The people who program AIs generally aren't the best at handling awkward human situations.

    The people who program generally aren't the best at handling awkward human situations.

    Fixed that for ya.

  34. lynn says:

    Oh no, now I am in moderation jail twice.

  35. SteveF says:

    but The Wise Latina still mystifies me

    Gotta make the court Look Like America ™. True, at only 11.1% hispanic, the court isn't hispanic enough, but Slobbomayor is fat enough to count for two so it's OK.

    I am in moderation jail again. And only four URLs this time.

    IIRC, Rick said that if you put a bare URL into a comment, it counts twice for URL-counting purposes: once for the text of the link (that is, what the reader sees) and once for the link itself (that is, where you go if you click it). Thus, four bare URLs in a comment counts as eight.

    The people who program AIs generally aren't the best at handling awkward human situations.

    Bah. How hard can it be? "Kill everyone." There. One rule and you have Stevebot 1000.

    Oh my goodness, Kamala Harris is the female version of Jimmah Carter.

    She’s worse than Carter. Jimmeh didn’t say “malaise” in his “malaise speech”. Heelsup is stupider, less personable, and more tone deaf than any politician should be. If not for kneepads and affirmative action, she’d never have gotten beyond being a failed local candidate.

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  36. Greg Norton says:

    Oh my goodness, Kamala Harris is the female version of Jimmah Carter.

    For all of his faults, in addition to being a successful farmer, Jimmy Carter is still a Naval Academy graduate and served with honor both in pre-nuclear and early nuclear sub assignments, including helping to clean the mess at Chalk River.

    The closest Kamala came to sub duty was kneepad patrol under Willie Brown's desk.

  37. Rick H says:

    @lynn … it is as @Steve says: one URL pasted by itself turns into 2 URLs; one for the visible part, and one for the HREF part. (WP automatically converts URL text into a clickable link, so one equals two when checked.)

    You can get around that by highlighting a word, the clicking that fancy 'link' button up there in the middle of the first row of buttons, and pasting the link in that dialog box. That will result in 'one' URL.

    Both comments released from Jail.

  38. SteveF says:

    it is as @Steve says

    I'm full of enlightenment! In homage, I accept worship, beer, or hot babes. Or combine them by sending me worshipful drunk babes.

  39. Rick H says:

    I'm full of enlightenment! In homage,

    "I'm full of ****. "

    Fixed it for you. Glad to help out. Don't forget to tip your waiter. Try the veal!

  40. paul says:

    A lovely 22F this AM.  Cloudy.  Really cheerful looking outside.  So cheerful that the dogs did their business and instead of the usual walk to the gate, they went another 50 feet and turned around and /trotted/ back to the house.  None of the usual smell this and smell that, zig zagging all over and eat some grass, and smell a cat. 

    I set the t-stat so the heatpump system goes to resistive heat at 26F instead of the default 20F.

    For what ever reason, I'm getting "that's not the right thing to do" and "it's hard on the system if it makes all that noise going to defrost" noise and I was shown a web page saying heatpumps loose efficiency starting at 40F.  

    Well, yeah, duh.  I installed the system.  IF you have gas heat the system goes to gas at 40F.  You can adjust the point to accommodate  for the price of gas vs electricity.

    Wow.  Big word.  🙂  Didn't need spellcheck, either.  Today.

    I'm not setting the system to go to electric heat at 40F.  I might go to 28F.

    Anyway, if all electric, the system is programmed by the manufacturer to go to back-up heat at 20F.  They might have a bit more information of how the system works than dopey ol' me.

    You've heard folks complain about heatpumps "feeling cold"?  I figured it out. I have a thermometer stuck in the dining room vent.  Ok, clipped.  The kind you use to stab a chicken to see if it's cooked.

    I have the t-stat set at 70F. I haven’t experimented with 72 or 74F. I suspect longer run times.

    Heatpump running says 85-88F.  Near enough, I'm not climbing up on a chair for a closer view.  Backup heat will say 100F and that's when it's 24F outside and allowing for heat loss by the ducts in the attic.  Sorry, I don't know what the old all electric system measured.  I ran the wood stove…. that whole warp core throbbing of the transformer thing you know.

    I had a thermometer in an air vent at the old house in Austin.  Gas heat.  It would read 110 to 120F.  By a 35 year old memory.  But that house has better ducts.

    The complaint about heatpumps for heat boils down to "drafty".

    Time to cookie the dogs.

  41. Ray Thompson says:

    Bah. How hard can it be? "Kill everyone." There. One rule and you have Stevebot 1000.

    But, but, that would also eliminate the maker of Stevebot 1000.

    Never got above freezing today. Maybe tomorrow. A couple of nights from now it is supposed to be in the single digits. Fortunately such cold does not last long here. In 1987 it got to 26 below zero in this area, coldest spot in the U.S., including Alaska. Pipes frozen everywhere. But unlike Texas, people still had power and natural gas. So brrrraaaaapppppp to Texans. And for the record, I was still living in Texas at that time. Where one time I received 12 inches of snow in San Antonio.

  42. paul says:

    Last year when it hit 1F, my plumbing problems were the water line to the washing machine.  Insulation shredded by time and cats.  And a line under the kitchen sink.  Same problem.  Add in a lack of insulation under the kitchen floor and a KitchenAid dishwasher having LOTS of insulation for sound proofing…. and well, the fill valve froze.

    Any idea I had of "a quarter inch copper pipe may be restricting water flow to the dishwasher" was proven false.   That little copper pipe made a flood in the kitchen real fast.

    The previous low that I have seen here in this house was 13F. Since 1993. The dishwasher fill valve was a surprise.

  43. Pecancorner says:

    The complaint about heatpumps for heat boils down to "drafty".

    Why I prefer our wood stove over all the central heat of any kind. First time I've been warm all winter in my life.  Because no drafts, no cold spots, no fans, no on-then-off-then-on-then-off.  And never any lying* from a thermostat.   It just gets the whole main part of the house to 70F and keeps it really there.

    *Speaking of, I laugh every time Ray or Nick talks about "the weather liars". Not sure why it strikes me so funny but a truer moniker there never was!

  44. MrAtoz says:

    It is scary reading about SCOTUS justices pulling brown numbers out of their arses on COVID. Throw in Roberts and you have three votes for right there.

  45. Greg Norton says:

    It is scary reading about SCOTUS justices pulling brown numbers out of their arses on COVID. Throw in Roberts and you have three votes for right there.

    If they kept to usual custom, the vote for both decisions happened this afternoon.

    Granted Biden was a foolish political choice of the kind Roberts believes the voters should have to live with, but the vaccine mandate for all businesses over 100 employees wasn’t the wisest political choice either since it is really about OSHA giving cover to C suites in Corporate America who sold out their employees months ago.

    A decision to keep the mandate at large companies will kick off mass resignations on Monday.

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  46. Gregory Norton says:

    I fell asleep during the second episode of "The Book of Boba Fett" the other night.

    It didn't help that after the show was over, we switched to watching the night's DS9 episode, "Call to Arms", featuring what is possibly the best final scene in the show's entire run.

    Marc Alaimo and Jeffrey Coombs really nailed the discovery of Sisko's "message".

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

  47. SteveF says:

    I need to do the payroll paperwork for the job I just started but I'm waiting until Monday. If the (flagrantly unConstitutional) clot shot mandate is upheld, I'll fill in that I'm exempt from payroll deductions. And that'll be nothing but the truth. If I'm no longer afforded the rights of a citizen, nor even those of a legal alien, then I no longer have the obligations of a citizen, nor any others which I acknowledge.

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  48. Alan says:

    >> The people who program AIs generally aren't the best at handling awkward human situations.

    Some that I've worked with seemed to be there just to add the Hot Skillz to their resume. 

  49. Greg Norton says:

    Some that I've worked with seemed to be there just to add the Hot Skillz to their resume. 

    I'm dealing with fallout of someone teaching themselves some Hot Skillz and then leaving at the new new job. At the end of the third working week, I still don't have a funcitonal build environment.

    Part of the problem was everyone being gone for the holiday, but the sticking point right now is a cluster of Git servers managed by Puppet where propagation of my SSH public key failed to hit every machine.

    The DevOps guys need to do some real work and stop padding resumes playing with containers and Ansible-like toys.

  50. Alan says:

    >> The complaint about heatpumps for heat boils down to "drafty".

    The solution is an air to water heat pump with hydronic distribution. Either at 'low' temperature for in-floor radiant or at 'high' temp for baseboards.

  51. Pecancorner says:

    Brown County has 560 new positives for COVID for the week, and "287 cases met the breakthrough definition." 

    It's been running 20% to 30% "breakthrough", but 50% is rather…  breathtaking. 

    There's a graph at the link.  Looks like a hockey stick!

    Hardly any hospitalized, though, so it's probably a mild strain.   Lots of vaccinated boostered folks from church have it.

  52. Alan says:

    Oops…but hey, it was ten years ago and I just apologized…

    https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/01/07/politics/jamal-simmons-apologizes/index.html

    Good work on vetting him, Camel. 

  53. lynn says:

    I fell asleep during the second episode of "The Book of Boba Fett" the other night.

    My wife feel asleep twice during "The Book of Boba Fett".

    Dad, my son, and I went to see the "Matrix Resurrection" today.  I start yawning halfway through.  Go see "American Underdog" instead.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Underdog_(film)

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  54. Alan says:

    So then getting Omicron is a good way to reup your natural immunity if you've had the Crud before?

    https://abc13.com/houston-coronavirus-utmb-research-omicron-variant-protecting-against/11372883/

  55. lynn says:

    My Mom had surgery yesterday to check out the incision from her hip replacement three weeks ago after the blood leakage blew the incision out on Wednesday.  He went all the way to the bone and found no problems.  She is in Methodist in the med center Houston until Monday or Tuesday.  Then she want to skip rehab and go home.  Dad and I want her to go to rehab.  Looks like I've got some persuading to do on Sunday.

  56. lynn says:

    "Mayhem In Kazakhstan As 18 Police Reported Killed, Banks Offline, Shooting & Explosions Heard"

        https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/dozens-killed-kazakh-police-battle-control-streets-war-zone-banks-being-looted

    Looks a lot like the aftermath of the BLM riots in the USA over the last two years.

  57. Greg Norton says:

    Dad, my son, and I went to see the "Matrix Resurrection" today.  I start yawning halfway through.  Go see "American Underdog" instead.

    I grew up in Tampa and very vivid memories of the 1999 NFC Championship at the Greatest Show on Turf. Don't wanna see that blown call again.

    I was happy to see Bruce McGill in the trailer. I received a "Quantum Leap" box set for Christmas, and McGill bookends the series as … God?

    I thought McGill had passed.

  58. nick flandrey says:

    Home, fed, watered, and kids in bed.

    Got most of what I wanted to do accomplished.  Programmer did too.  The box that manages all the audio, and is supposed to have built in streaming has some issues.  Couldn't get music streaming to work.  Pulled all the setup for that out of the controls, and then blew up the network.  Took 2 more hours to get that all back together, and I'm still not sure what he did.  Something went sideways with the controls.

    I discovered, after sliding around on my belly in the attic for a hour, that my networking wifi issues are probably caused by the hardware being in the equivalent of a boot loop.  I'll be replacing 4 ubiquiti AC lite access points.   They are a couple years old, have been in an attic that reaches 143F on a hot day, and had a nearby lightning strike that killed hardware outright.  Wish I'd done the hard work earlier, but it was HOT earlier.

    Maybe working virgin hardware will automagically configure, like it's supposed to.  I hope so.  That will wait until Monday or Tuesday.  The working AP got relocated to a more central spot, and it's covering the main parts of the house pretty well.

    Crawling in the attic has my arms and knees aching.  No me gusta!

    n

  59. lynn says:

    @lynn … it is as @Steve says: one URL pasted by itself turns into 2 URLs; one for the visible part, and one for the HREF part. (WP automatically converts URL text into a clickable link, so one equals two when checked.)

    You can get around that by highlighting a word, the clicking that fancy 'link' button up there in the middle of the first row of buttons, and pasting the link in that dialog box. That will result in 'one' URL.

    Both comments released from Jail.

    Thanks !

    I will try this.  But I usually compose the message in another window and paste it from the other window.

  60. nick flandrey says:

    @lynn, you aren't a 'subscriber' to the blog.  Try that and I can give you the authority to release your own comments.

    No, I don't actually know how to become a subscriber.  Only 33 people are…

    n

  61. lynn says:

    @lynn, you aren't a 'subscriber' to the blog.  Try that and I can give you the authority to release your own comments.

    No, I don't actually know how to become a subscriber.  Only 33 people are…

    n

    I have no idea how to become a subscriber either.

  62. Denis says:

    I have no idea how to become a subscriber either.

    Try writing your name and email address on the back of a 100-Dollar bill and sending it to SteveF.

Comments are closed.