Cool, possibly not cold, but who really knows? The shadow knows. But not the weather liars. It been freezing overnight the last couple of nights but very pleasant during the day. Could be that today is the same, with nice clear skies. That is what I’m hoping for anyway.
Did my TV hang at my client’s house in the morning. Got help from a friend and I was glad to have him there. 75″ Sony TVs are not light. Not as heavy as the old plasmas, but still pretty heavy and awkward. I spent a couple of extra hours there and subsequently didn’t get anything done at home that needed to be done. Those things all got pushed to today.
There is a plumber coming by at some point this morning, and I’m suppose to be ready for him by clearing out his work area, and putting a mounting board on the side of the house. I’m also supposed to be doing pickups for a bunch of lakehouse stuff, today, tomorrow, and Saturday. Complicated by having my non-prepping hobby quarterly swapmeet and get together on Saturday… and I really need to attend as I’ve been stacking stuff to sell there.
All in all, a busy few days, and I don’t know if I’ll even make it to everything.
At least the world held together for a few more days.
Stack what you can.
n
38F and saturated air this morning.
Chilly and damp. Ugg.
n
Welp, we did it: we signed on the dotted line for an Ioniq 5.
Delivery times are long, really long. We looked at a Skoda, and were told that the expected wait is 12 months. This Ioniq is one the dealer speculatively ordered last year, hoping to sell it. It arrives next month. I mentioned that dealers here don't keep big inventories, and apparently the manufacturers are suffering production delays due to the chip shortage. Being a dealer with low/no inventory must really suck just about now…
Being a dealer with low/no inventory must really suck just about now…
— my buddy with the gun store is barely hanging on, and thinking of winding down the business. It is hard to run a shop with no goods to sell.
n
Have y'all seen the video of Putin's speech, where he lays out the Russian position very, extremely clearly?
If NATO lets Ukraine join, and the Ukraine tries to re-annex Crimea (which he believes it will), then this will lead to war between Ukraine and Russia. If NATO gets involved, Russia will be outmatched, except for their nuclear arsenal, which they will then be forced to use.
Whether its a bluff or not, is perhaps a valid question. However, Russia very clearly wants to maintain a buffer state between themselves and NATO. If the Ukraine joins NATO, there is no buffer. This is not acceptable to Russia.
Meanwhile, the official NATO statement: "From the very beginning of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in 2014, NATO has adopted a firm position in full support of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders. The Allies strongly condemn and will not recognise Russia’s illegal and illegitimate annexation of Crimea, and denounce its temporary occupation."
Both sides have left a little, teeny, tiny bit of wiggle-room in their statements. However, it sure sounds like both sides are willing to have a go at military conflict. Russia shouldn't be mucking with the Ukraine. NATO shouldn't be supporting the Ukraine militarily. Either side could step back, neither side wants to be the first to blink. Stupid. Just utterly stupid on both sides.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-10495585/Five-brands-male-enhancement-pills-sold-Amazon-recalled-containing-ED-drug.html
— the OTC supplement, which purports to give men erections or bigger or longer lasting erections, is recalled because it is "tainted" with a drug that ACTUALLY DOES those things.
It is truly bizarro world.
n
Beat me to it. The couple "outdoors" shops I go to have stuff on the shelves and on the walls but it's thin.
Doesn't that describe most conflicts. Started by power hungry individuals. Spending billions to destroy what will cost billions to replace. And neither side wins in the long run.
I'll be interested to hear you thoughts after you've had it a while. My timeline is probably 3 or 4 years out, excluding a wreck, and the Ioniq 5 is definitely interesting.
Yep. Somehow, the politicians and their progeny are almost never on the front lines. Other people die for their fantasies.
If you have solar, one of the interesting features: The Ioniq seems to be prepared – hardware – to act as a battery for a solar installation. Apparently, it's not yet allowed to do that – lots of regulatory hurdles to leap. So they just have a household plug that runs off the battery. The car itself lets you set limits, for example, only provide power until the battery is down to X%.
The current theory is that only a software update will be needed, once all the i's have been dotted. Probably a 2-3 year process, at least in Europe.
For laughs: They also offer a "solar roof", i.e., you can have the roof of the car covered with solar cells. I say "for laughs", because it provides a maximum of 200 watts of power, which is just ridiculous – it could fully charge the car in about…2 months, depending on your latitude and weather conditions.
Keeps the greenies happy, you know, the ones that really don't do the math. May even be some government subsidy involved. You can never get stranded in bright sunlight. Wait five hours, drive 100 meters. It will get you home. Provided you don't use the audio system.
A car roof-size solar panel could charge a phone in a few hours but not a EV battery.
I guess the theory is that you are never stranded as long as you can charge a phone, but I've driven through places around here where all wireless service goes away completely, even on the ILEC AT&T.
To be fair, if you had full mid-day sunshine, five hours would get you 1kwh. If you drove carefully, that might get you 3-4 miles. Of course, you could walk 3-4 miles in an hour.
The active ingredients in the prescription ED drugs are serious no-nos for various categories of cardiac patients among others. The drugs are prescription-only for a reason.
Ever since Viagra was approved for ED, lots of online entities have tried to do an end run around the regulations since the market is bottomless, even when patients know they could die mixing the drugs with cardic meds, particularly nitro.
My wife gets it all the time, especially since she went to the VA. "At least I will die with a smile on my face."
"Yes, but your family won't see it that way and will sue the cr*p out everyone they can, starting with me."
My father-in-law, a heart transplant patient, got Viagra from somewhere against the doctors’ orders, and taking it with the anti-rejection meds and nitro bottomed out his blood pressure one weekend which sent him into rejection that led to his death five months later. Of course, when he went into the hospital for the last time, he didn’t confess to taking the pills right away, and he never fully understand the impact of what he had done to the program since every transplant is a unique case study, funded in part in the US by the government.
The doctors *almost* pulled off a miracle getting him out of rejection, but he was going to walk out the door on dialysis and using a walker if he hadn’t died under somewhat mysterious circumstances a few days before release.
Back in the day, I had a couple of USB power banks with solar cells on them (I still have one) Typical power-bank size, about 5AH capacity. They take forever and about 2 days to charge from solar.
Of course, if your only power source, out in the boonies, is that solar cell, you'll settle for what you can get, but for regular use, it's about as much use as a slap in the face with a piece of wet cod. (/me remembers a Monty Python sketch which involved exactly that scenario)
Of course, all the power-bank manufacturers call that 5,000 mAH, because marketing (bigger number is better)
/rant.
G.
Let's support society's most important members
https://californiaglobe.com/articles/sacramento-mayor-proposes-guaranteed-basic-income-for-artists/
Only California.
don’t artists need to suffer?
When I worked in the arts it was a given that 'happy people don't make art."
n
1. Most artists produce only crap if they aren't suffering.
2. Most artists produce only crap no matter what.
3. Whether or not they produce crap, I see no reason that I should be forced to subsidize their existence.
Plumbers tearing up the laundry room.
No water in the house. Wife didn't pull a pitcher of water to drink before hand either. I did fill 10 gal in the bathroom for flushing, but forgot to get drinking water. Oh well, will just drink soda instead of tea.
(yeah, I don't have any bottled water here. never use it. I do have some cans of plain fizzy water…)
n
Drink the water saved for flushing and pee in the toilet tank. Recycle!
Art is not a profession. It's a hobby, except for a very, very few.
Me, I like to sing, and I was once even good at it. My son likes to write stories. Neither of us expects anyone to subsidize us.
If someone is *really* good, they can earn some beer money with their hobby. Expect handouts? Don't be entitled.
Yes. He makes old man plugs look feeble. plugs probably filled his Depends watching Putin.
I’m just going to assume Nick (aka MR. PREPPER) is joshing with us…
No bottled water in Hurricane land? Shame.
I backed the LightSaver Max Portable Solar Charger on Kickstarter back in the day and it still works fine. I does take a day in the Sun to fully charge, but the form factor is convenient and can hang off a back pack.
I really like my Rockpals foldable 100W solar panel since it also has a pouch with a USB connector for standalone charging of a device. Throw it in the back of your car no problemo.
I got the Jackery 2000 as a main solar gadget because it will charge from 20% to 100% in 3 hours in full sunshine with the four 200W panels attached. I hung the panels on the fence and used cable extenders which fit under the back door and have a rolling rack with the *generator* on it.
Or get a really powerful FLASHLIGHT and shine it on the solar cells. Or an extension cord and a high power xenon lamp shining on the solar cells. Or pull a small trailer with a gasoline powered generator (which might just give a greenie a heart attack).
90% of bottled water sold in stores is city water run through a filter. I won't waste $$ on it as my refrigerator has a filter. Then I draw water from the refrigerator door.
No bottled water in Hurricane land? Shame.
— I've got a couple of hundred gallons stored, but not in single use bottles… Could put an aquatainer on the counter if needed. The pipes are fighting the guys, they didn't expect it to be off this long. Didn't seem worth it to get out the stored water.
n
That is why I have a Garmin inReach GPSr.
https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/690986
@mratoz:
I've got one of those, as well. Bought at retail. Haven't used it in earnest, yet. For the moment, I'm just keeping it charged, pending summer, when I hope to take it, and my amateur rigs, to the field, for some radio fun.
G.
That's about what I tell my daughter and Spare Kid, plus other teens if the topic comes up. Not only art but music, writing, medieval literature, history, and practically everything else taught in college. The supply of people with a degree in English Lit. vastly exceeds the market demand for people with that specialty.
Everyone should know some history, just like everyone should know some math beyond arithmetic. Reading the classics of English literature, the Western Canon, is an excellent way to broaden your knowledge of Western culture. You don't need a professor for that. Especially these days, you can learn all that for no additional cost beyond your monthly phone or ISP bill.
Go ahead and draw in your free time. Study up on the Dutch Masters and their techniques. Pay for a weekly lesson if you want. Don't go $50,000 in debt to get a useless degree in the fine arts and absolutely do not use $50,000 of my tax dollars to get a useless degree.
I travel with my Grayl and even use it in the hotel to filter the water. Also the airport and skip the $3 bottle of water. Of course, you need water to filter, which is no problem in San Antonio.
@cowboy slim:
Yes, I have a Garmin GPSMap76, just in case I need mapping outside mobile coverage. And an AvMAP GeoSat 6 for a car GPS – my Seat is old enough that satnav is not standard. It's about the only GPS that I know of that can talk to an amateur rig for APRS.
G.
Speaking of bizarro:
Single mom-of-five faces a year in prison after she let her daughter, 14, babysit siblings
So the boy walked away but is safe. Some Karen calls 911 later and the cops arrest the Mom. WTAF? 14 year olds babysit all the time. She should sue the neighbor for being a dooshnozzle.
Some discussion here.
The problem is that everyone into art is almost certain they're going to be one of the "very, very few."
Don't laugh. An optional generator disguised as a toolbox in the bed is the Ford solution to range anxiety with their upcoming Jesus Truck.
I would posit that a majority of the minority work in digital art in Hollyweird.
There are still many places in the US other than California where an artist can live cheaply and make all the art they want, free of any commercial concerns.
See also a majority of parents at every child sporting event. And up that to ALL parents of any travel league team.
Single-serving bottled water? I've got 5 cases of it. The primary use of single-serving water bottles is to be put in an ice chest at the front door, with a sign that says "TAKE ONE" for the delivery people. The Amazon/Fedex/UPS drivers often don't have time to do more than grab a bottle of water. They are very appreciative.
LOL!!!!!!
Beto O’Rourke pivots from ‘hell yes we’re going to take your AR-15’ to ‘not interested in taking anything from anyone’
Sure, Butto, sure. Staunch Constitutionalist Butto.
The Nevada Governor just dropped masks mandates. Effective immediately. Masks were being shot in the air on the casino floor.
How long will plugs last before crumbling. I fly to SA on Saturday. Probably won't happen by then. Maybe the airlines will grow a pair and just "LETS GO BRANDON"!
Robert Francis has a "store" down on … Burnett? … the next time you are in Austin.
Hats. T-shirts. Stickers. Yard signs. Everything with B*TO! stamped on it.
Still no word on whether they have the "Kennedy-Addisons" shade of foundation he wears on TV.
Maybe businesses will realize forcing their employees to mask is a joke. The science says so.
The C-suites are going to cover for Brandon if they depend on Federal spending, which is most of them beyond 100 employees. The new new job has a mask and testing mandate for anyone entering the buildings who doesn't have proof of a jab.
It hasn't been an issue for me so far, but management is now talking April to be back in the buildings.
@Kenneth C Mitchell, I think you've mentioned that before. Wonderful idea. I am going to try to remember to offer a water to the UPS/FedEx drivers. They are always in such a hurry, but I usually see them pull up so can catch them for the offer.
@Lynn, How's your mom today? She is in my prayers. Please tell your dad that if he doesn't like the person they send out to help her, he can send them packing and they will send a different person until they get the right helper who bonds with them.
He should not worry about hurt feelings: they know this is a very personal thing and not all personalities mesh. They don't take it personally. It is not like some kinds of services where you are stuck with the person like it or not.
Also, please tell him there are some truly wonderful people working in the home care field… like Hospice, it is a calling.
Dilbert: Billing Error
https://dilbert.com/strip/2022-02-10
Don't go to the edge of the rooftop Dilbert, don't go !
WRT to the Garmin inReach devices, when outside cellular connectivity, one can text via the Iridium Satellite System to any smartphone or email. Replies can also be received.
LOL
Fully autonomous Black Hawk helicopter takes to the skies without a pilot for the first time: Could now be used in warzones
When it's shot down in Ukraine, at least the pilots live. The Grunts, not so much. There's JohnnyCab, now JohnnyChopper. Maybe should have started with an observation helicopter. Why would a Grunt get on a pilotless chopper?
Mom is doing well. The surgeon closed the incision today. This was her 9th surgery in the last ten years. No more!
Don't know about getting somebody in to help them daily. We have not had that conversation yet. It will not go well.
Why would a Grunt get on a pilotless chopper?
There is a scifi short story about a space liner hauling 50 humans and 50 AIs. The pilots are AIs. A pirate appears and wants to board the space liner. The pilots discuss being turned into slaves and decide to punch it at 50 gravities. The humans turn into paste but the AIs get away.
JohnnyCab may have gone back to his Starfleet gig, working for Admiral Janeway.
I wouldn't be surprised if Robert Picardo does voice work in the back half of the "Prodigy" season.
Scott Adams was legacy PacBell. Phone company billing systems are beyond screwed up.
At GTE, roughly 1/3 of the bills were wrong by company estimates.
When I endured customer service scab training at the Death Star, we were taught to never admit a mistake with regard to numbers from the billing system but offer a credit "as a courtesy" and attempt to upsell services.
Below a certain dollar amount was an automatic, regardless of what the computer said.
Yes! Half the casino employees aren’t wearing masks. I wonder if the clot shot is required?
Ah, AT&T institutional lying. I remember it well, from a customer perspective.
In 1985, I worked for a bank system that had a 5 state network based on leased lines from various vendors. We probably had 20 or so dedicated leased lines with commercial rack mount high-speed modems. Don’t quote me, but I believe high-speed meant 2400 baud. We also had the highest-end diagnostic monitor on all the lines. The network guys told me they knew what lines went down, when they went down, and what office of what vendor was the end-of-the-line when they went down. In other words, we knew a lot more than the vendors knew we knew.
I remember that Wells Fargo was one of the vendors but I don’t remember the rest, except AT&T. The net guys would joke about it, like clockwork. Call Wells Fargo or another vendor, report the outage, the tech would look at it, reset what was necessary, admit or acknowledge the outage, and tell us to reset our end if it didn’t automatically resync. Easy Peasy.
Call AT&T and report the line down. Tech says “Oh, no. Our lines don’t go down; we have 100% uptime. The problem must be at your end; reset your modem and everything will be ok.”
Of course, they had already reset the modem before they called. Normal troubleshooting. But somehow, magically, after talking the the AT&T tech, the connection was fixed. I mean, the 100% uptime line was reconnected due to our “faulty” equipment.
Nevada lifted restrictions. The half still wearing masks must like it.
@Lynn
"Don't know about getting somebody in to help them daily. We have not had that conversation yet. It will not go well."
Getting help is no guarantee. But when you lose the better half after decades of being together, the one that is left is in the loneliest place in the world. Ask your dad if there's anything he wouldn't do to put that off.
I've heard a lot of people say that they would give anything for just one more day. Most of them meant exactly that.
In 1985, I worked for a bank system that had a 5 state network based on leased lines from various vendors. We probably had 20 or so dedicated leased lines with commercial rack mount high-speed modems. Don’t quote me, but I believe high-speed meant 2400 baud. We also had the highest-end diagnostic monitor on all the lines. The network guys told me they knew what lines went down, when they went down, and what office of what vendor was the end-of-the-line when they went down. In other words, we knew a lot more than the vendors knew we knew.
We had one at ChemShare from Houston to Dallas in 1976 to 1980 when UCS (or was it UCC ?) moved the Univac 1108 from the old Fannin Bank bldg (Holcomb at Main) to the SMU campus. Our was 4800 baud up and down. The modem was a very hefty box on the wall.
Nevada lifted restrictions. The half still wearing masks must like it.
Half of the population is wearing masks in their cars around here !
A quarter of the population is wearing two masks !
Don't tell me that those people are not still scared as the day this whole mess started.
If they stop wearing the mask, if they acknowledge that the "vaccines" are useless or worse than useless, then they have to face up to the fact that they've lived a lie for two years. They've abused their children and they've subjected themselves to what some view as psychological torture for two years.
It is easier to fool a masktard than to convince her that she has been fooled. — Mark Twain, more or less
Over The Hedge: The New Webb Telescope
https://www.gocomics.com/overthehedge/2022/02/10
Uh, that explains the speed of light limit.
Comcast says hold my beer.
The bank I worked with in the same area had multiple lines to multiple banks across Texas. We too were using 2400 baud but increased to 9600 baud in early 1987. Paid dearly for those lines and the modems. Had a large network console with patch panels to quickly tap into circuits, monitor the line and the traffic and do diagnostics. Reboot modems, modem diagnostics, line quality, etc. High tech stuff for the time.
We also had a DES encryption box connected to a modem provided by PULSE to the PULSE servers in Houston. I have no idea of the speed. I had written the bank's software for the shared ATM network. Every 3 seconds a heartbeat message was sent to PULSE. If no response with 15 seconds the operator was alerted to PULSE being down. Many times when the operator called PULSE and informed PULSE they were down, there was denial, then after about a minute confirmation. Sort of annoyed PULSE.
Since PULSE paid my bank $0.50 a transaction for every PULSE transaction we handled I came up with a brilliant idea. There was no mention of handling denied transactions as being any different. Any transactions that my software denied because PULSE was down was placed in a store-and-forward file. When PULSE came back up my software would send the entire file of transactions to PULSE. This had the undesired effect of sometimes crashing PULSE if the number of transactions was more than about 50. It was necessary to modify my software to only send 3 transaction every 3 seconds until the file was emptied.
PULSE did not like what we doing as no other banks were storing the denied transactions. It was not a violation of PULSE's terms of service or the contract. Three other banks in Texas were using my software so they also were storing denied transactions and sending to PULSE when PULSE was back operational. I suspect other banks started doing the same as bank people talk to other bank people.
>> The active ingredients in the prescription ED drugs are serious no-nos for various categories of cardiac patients among others. The drugs are prescription-only for a reason.
The reason being to allow the drug companies to make lots of money. As RBT used to say, except for a few high-grade antibiotics, all drugs should be available OTC. If you're stupid enough to combine an ED drug with a nitrate, you can get a posthumous Darwin award. Besides, we all know what to take from all the drug commercials.
"Capitol Police Dressed Like Construction Workers Break into GOP Rep’s Office – Photograph Confidential Documents and Harass Staff"
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/02/capitol-police-dressed-like-construction-workers-break-gop-reps-office-photograph-confidential-documents-harass-staff/
This is my congressperson. Before Congress, he was our county sheriff for several years. He was also in the USA Army Guard from which he retired as a major. He is a good man. If he says that he is getting spied on, he was spied on.
Of course, Nancy Pelosi says that she had nothing to do with the spying.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/02/pelosi-snaps-reporter-asking-abusing-power-capitol-police-spying-republican-lawmakers-video/
>> Only California.
don’t artists need to suffer?
Just keep believing that one day the "big one" will drop CA into the Pacific Ocean.
@Lynn
"Don't know about getting somebody in to help them daily. We have not had that conversation yet. It will not go well."
Getting help is no guarantee. But when you lose the better half after decades of being together, the one that is left is in the loneliest place in the world. Ask your dad if there's anything he wouldn't do to put that off.
I've heard a lot of people say that they would give anything for just one more day. Most of them meant exactly that.
Mom is ready to move on. She has had nine surgeries in the last ten years. She is tired of living in pain. She has told me several times that she wants to die.
Her Medicare bills have hit over two million dollars according to my father.
>> When it's shot down in Ukraine, at least the pilots live. The Grunts, not so much. There's JohnnyCab, now JohnnyChopper. Maybe should have started with an observation helicopter. Why would a Grunt get on a pilotless chopper?
Following orders??
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10499017/Cost-living-skyrockets-Biden-inflation-soars-highest-point-40-years.html
— I'm sure it's just transitory, on a long enough timeline.
n
Well, we've got hot water. Lotta junk in the faucets I need to clean out. That always happens when we disturb the pipes. Lot of work to get it all installed. I'm glad it wasn't me.
Still need to insulate pipes, and get the drywall fixed, remove the old vent stack, reinstall siding around the unit, and have a GFCI outlet installed for the unit. So basically, we've got hot water, but the thing is not done.
n
In the case of my wife's patient base, a lot of families live off of the VA benefits the father/grandfather receives monthly. The moment the old guy dies "with a smile", the families start looking for someone to sue.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10499017/Cost-living-skyrockets-Biden-inflation-soars-highest-point-40-years.html
— I'm sure it's just transitory, on a long enough timeline.
n
Only 30% a year for the next 10 to 15 years.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10499017/Cost-living-skyrockets-Biden-inflation-soars-highest-point-40-years.html
— I'm sure it's just transitory, on a long enough timeline.
n
Only 30% a year for the next 10 to 15 years.
BTW, Biden has not put his carbon taxes on gasoline and diesel yet. $0.50/gal year 1, $1.00/gal year 2, $2.00/gal year 3, etc. The carbon tax doubles every year.
There will be equivalent carbon taxes on natural gas and coal also.
I thought he was going to put his carbon taxes on in 2021 but he was persuaded to wait until after the midterms. Jan 2023 will bring the new carbon taxes but he might skip $0.50/gallon step and go straight to the $1.00/gal tax.
Someone (Kissinger?) once said that to understand the Soviets position on any NATO issue one should first replace the word NATO with GERMANY…
"Freedom Convoy: How might Canada's trucker protest end?"
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-60293708?utm_source=pocket-newtab
"Last Thursday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tamped down calls for military intervention, warning: "One has to be very, very cautious before deploying military in situations engaging Canadians.""
Not peacefully if junior does not give in. It can get worse, way worse. At least junior is wise enough to realize that bringing in the military could cause a civil war.
Western Digital, Kioxia Lose 'At Least' 6.5 Exabytes of 3D NAND Due to Contamination (Updated)
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/western-digital-and-kioxia-report-3d-nand-contamination-impacts-at-least-65-exabytes
Note: Kitakami
Chemical contamination of a raw material.
Somebodies are going to have excess tatami mats when they move to their new digs.
@Lynn
Still waiting to see how cutting off fuel supplies affects grocery supplies in Ottawa.
@Lynn
They're not talking about putting on carbon taxes, they're talking about a federal fuel tax moratorium.
Gee, must be an election coming up.
Gonna be a run on those "I did that" stickers.
New polling has 56% of people being unable to name a single thing that VeggieJoe has done that they approve of.
And after Speaker of the House Trump is sworn in, the impeachment hearings will start.
Seriously, though, I think losing the large employer vaccine in the Supreme Court mandate quelled the interest in exploring the limits of Presidential power.
@Lynn
Still waiting to see how cutting off fuel supplies affects grocery supplies in Ottawa.
It is very close to going medieval in Ottawa.