Sun. Feb. 20, 2022 – a day of rest……………. ha! only kidding!

By on February 20th, 2022 in culture, personal, WuFlu

Cool and damp, maybe even cold…   It wasn’t bad yesterday.  Started cold, got cool, then even nice later in the day.  Sun was out and that was nice.  Today should be similar.

Did my volunteer time at the kid’s school.   We updated and installed a bunch of lights in their theater.  Turns out, my wife is working a plan in meatspace, as well as helping out with the theater and PTA.  It’s not an ulterior motive, it’s just that her involvement has multiple motives.

Closed out the basketball season with younger kid.

‘Bout ready to close out winter and start on Spring, truth be told.

No further info about closing tomorrow on the BOL… but we filed and amendment to move closing to next week.  Probably not necessary, but in the current real estate market, crossing every T and dotting every I is advisable.

And none of my tasks got accomplished on Saturday.  So I have more than ever to do today.  If I’m not a groaning sore broken wreck…

Build some relationships out in meatspace.  Move a project or three forward.  Stack some stuff.  Ya know ya wanna….

n

62 Comments and discussion on "Sun. Feb. 20, 2022 – a day of rest……………. ha! only kidding!"

  1. Greg Norton says:

    The Widow Jobs opining on the unvaccinated by proxy. What is it with these tech people and control of this particular situation?

    https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2022/02/covid-anti-vaccine-smoking/622819/?utm_source=pocket-newtab

    No conspiracy theory here. I guess the case could be made when I tie Laurene Powell Jobs to editorial content at ABC/Disney — even though she controls a huge chunk of stock, the largest block of the company held by an individual (or was) — Steve’s widow owns The Atlantic outright.

    Iger gave away the keys to The Mouse kingdom to secure Pixar.

  2. Greg Norton says:

    Supply chain/retail issue of the weekend — Home Depot's computer says that my closest store has 14 circuit breaker tracer tools in stock, but when I stopped to buy one last night, the spot on the shelf was empty. The staff at the store were stumped.

    It isnt a commodity like toilet seats — they were picked clean in that aisle — but a $50 tool. Times 14, the store is out $700 in potential sales. The people running the store were clueless.

    The actual electrical problem at my house was weirder. Several outlets in our downstairs bathrooms were out for a few hours yesterday afternoon, and all of the breakers passed the multimeter check. After resetting all the GFI outlets in case one was on that line, I turned off/on the dishwasher at the switch (Texas code), and the bathroom outlets started working again.

    It doesn't make sense that the dishwasher would be on that circuit since the outlets are about as far away from the kitchen as possible, but I intend to verify it this afternoon.

    Once I find a tracer.

  3. Lynn says:

    It is 48 F and overcast out here in the wilds of Fort Bend County.  The dog is walking the fence line and the cat is on the back patio staring off into the distance.  Cats are weird.

    I tested negative for The Koof last night so we are going to church.  I guess that I did not catch covid from dad last weekend.  He tested positive at mom's hospital last Tuesday and positive on a home test Thursday.  

    I am going to see Mom this afternoon or Monday.  Probably Monday.  She is not doing well and the surgeon wants to remove her new hip implant due to possible infection.

  4. Lynn says:

    And the varmints are back in the house.  Cold and wet out there.

  5. drwilliams says:

    @Nick

    I'm also very sensitive to flicker and strobing so I'll a bit concerned that the cheap power supplies will cause a bunch of that.   Rotating machinery and strobing lights just don't safely mix…

    I'd install them along side your existing, maybe running an extension cord to them for testing, and see if the quality of light is sufficient for your needs.  I wouldn't rip out the old, or spend a ton of money on something I couldn't send back and get refunded, until I  was sure they look ok.  The lasting part you won't know until they fail.  If they're cheap enough it might not matter to you.

    And fluorescent bulbs flicker too….

    I have the same concerns about strobing. U.S. fluorescent lights in normal operation flicker at 60Hz and are bad enough. U.K. is 50HZ and used to give me headaches.

    My experience has been that a mid-range LED replacement for a 4-ft fluorescent can be very good. I bought a number from Rockler 7-8 years ago when they had them on sale for $50. No complaints.

    I've rewired a couple fixtures to remove the ballast with good results. I haven't done the direct replacement leaving the ballast in the circuit to uselessly burn energy.

    There were several U.S. makers that developed incandescent replacements that were well-engineered, with hefty heat sinks, excellent electronics, and good light color. Weren't successful–Gresham's Law works for more than money, and definitely works for LED's.

    Heat dissipation is one of the biggest limitations on bulb life. I've cooked a number of CFL's over the years, and the same fixtures are not good for LED's. We designed an enclosure for ceiling-mounted 4-ft fluorescents in our rec room when I was in high school. Solid luan sides and a nice diffuser. I'm tempted to make a couple and add a small fan.

    ADDED:
    I did put some 200W equivalent Osram Sylvania bulbs in some outdoor fixtures, and considered it a good compromise over replacing the fixures. Always like to flick a switch and put a bid load of light into the yard at night.

  6. Greg Norton says:

    There were several U.S. makers that developed incandescent replacements that were well-engineered, with hefty heat sinks, excellent electronics, and good light color. Weren't successful–Gresham's Law works for more than money, and definitely works for LED's.

    The Philips flat LED bulbs were an interesting compromise, but no one was going to pay $10/each for a light bulb once the novelty of LED wore off. Again, the $20 Reebok principle at work, particularly among my generation.

    I have two of the flat LED bulbs still going strong after nearly six years. In one outdoor location, the $20 “temporary” light fixture has fallen apart but the bulb still shines like new.

  7. Nick Flandrey says:

    Up and moving, albeit slowly.  Not as sore as I thought I'd be but more 'all over' weariness.  Arms feel heavy.

    Very weird dreams about aliens in hazmat and cops hassling people on the street at Fort Huachucha….  very specifically there.  Like I said, weird.

    59F and only 67%RH with a blown out white overcast sky.  Time to get some coffee and food in me.

    n

  8. Nick Flandrey says:

    Trigger warning- editorial contains biased and inflammatory statements.  The events discussed were entirely justified under use of force guidelines. No one who matters was hurt. They brought it on themselves.  /sarc

    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/trampling-truckers-great-reset-becomes-great-awakening

    — if you don't like what the author has to say, or his point of view, at least look at the pictures and watch the video, so you can not say later that you didn't know.

    n

  9. Nick Flandrey says:

    Looks like an occupying army.

    Canadian cops with suppressed ARs.

    How many buildings were burned?  How many businesses were looted?  How many rapes?  How many federal buildings were broken into and set on fire?  How many kids in jeeps did the protesters shoot?  How many media team "security officers" killed protesters?   Oh, right NONE of those things happened there, but all of them happened when antifa/blm/soros rioted…

    I'm not even posting links to the old woman who gets trampled by RCMP horses.

    One SUV carrying nurses and medical supplies was surrounded by armed police and a window of the vehicle was smashed, outside the secure area. When the police searched the vehicle and confirmed there were no weapons, they let the protesters continue their journey – and gave them information about how to get the window repaired. There were no arrests.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10530603/Riot-cops-clear-final-Freedom-Convoy-protesters-Trudeaus-Ottawa-doorstep.html

    Add NZ and Australia, Austria, Italy (Mario Draghi: "The unvaccinated are not part of our society.") and what  we are seeing is the beginning of the end of everything we grew up with, and the most productive and free period in world history.    Hyperbole?  I don't think so.  I hope so, but I don't think so.

    n

    FREAKING  CANADA.   Of all places.

  10. Nick Flandrey says:

    There were several U.S. makers that developed incandescent replacements that were well-engineered, with hefty heat sinks, excellent electronics, and good light color.

    I've got an early US or German made led can light, and it has a massive heat sink.  Heat kills LEDs and more importantly, the power electronics that drive them.   

    Everywhere I go I see failed power electronics as the parking lot light slowly strobes…

    n

  11. Nick Flandrey says:

    Probably not shot by white cops.

    A woman was killed and five wounded in a shooting Saturday night at a Portland park where people had gathered to protest the police shooting of Amir Locke

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10532339/Police-1-killed-5-hurt-park-shooting-Portland.html

    n

  12. Greg Norton says:

    FREAKING  CANADA.   Of all places.

    Maybe Wee Pierre had been assured by Biden that the war in Ukraine would start by now, providing the media cover for the skull cracking to proceed.

    Dumb and Dumber.

  13. Greg Norton says:

    Probably not shot by white cops.

    A woman was killed and five wounded in a shooting Saturday night at a Portland park where people had gathered to protest the police shooting of Amir Locke

    Hollywood District. Not a lot of Amish live there. *My impression from having lived nearby for four years starting in 2010* is that Portland PD has more leeway about cracking skulls there and in The Pearl to keep the mess contained downtown, where they could shut it all down in a couple of hours if necessary.

    The Mayor lives in The Pearl. Hollywood is serious money.

    The park is within easy walking distance of the rolling homeless shelter -er- light rail station.

    I don’t miss Vantucky/Portlandia.

  14. Ray Thompson says:

    Flickering lights in high school sports venues really give me significant problems. With my new camera there is anti-flickering technology so it is a known issue. The feature works, most of the time. Turn off anti-flickering and the problem is really noticeable. It is not just LED but fluorescent and sodium are also afflicted. College and pro stadiums have three-phase power and put the lights on different circuits. to minimize the effect. Really good stuff has electronics that keep the LEDs powered through the zero crossing of the phase.

    High school football stadiums are the worsts. End zones lighted by not much more than the equivalent of a couple hundred watt bulbs. Basketball arenas lighted by an idiot who thinks the lighting in the stands should be equal to, or better, than the center of the gym.

    Color balance I can deal with in post processing or a custom white balance. A lot of HS stadiums with the sodium lights have very little blue component which makes white balancing really tough.

  15. Mark W says:

    I accidentally watched a few minutes of the NBC national news last night. The spokesmodel/anchor called the protest "mostly peaceful" which is ridiculous in its comparison.

  16. Mark W says:

    The real value of this site is that when someone posts something that turns out to be incorrect, other people will point it out, and most importantly, post links to relevant information that expands the conversation, as was done yesterday by a couple of people.

    If I wanted to see people mocking each other I'd go back to Facecrack or watch Pravda (aka MSM). 

    Instead, I read sites such as this where people think for themselves and aren't mentally constrained by the government & big tech lies.

  17. CowboySlim says:

    I'll be going to Mother's Tavern in an hour to hear and see a "honky tonk" band playing there this afternoon.

    https://www.facebook.com/MothersTavern

  18. MrAtoz says:

    I'll be going to Mother's Tavern in an hour to hear and see a "honky tonk" band playing there this afternoon.

    https://www.facebook.com/MothersTavern

    LOL. The wordle knobs would probably think that's a raycis term.

  19. Nick Flandrey says:

    Justin had his fill of "honk-y" s

    n

  20. lynn says:

    Heat dissipation is one of the biggest limitations on bulb life. I've cooked a number of CFL's over the years, and the same fixtures are not good for LED's. We designed an enclosure for ceiling-mounted 4-ft fluorescents in our rec room when I was in high school. Solid luan sides and a nice diffuser. I'm tempted to make a couple and add a small fan.

    My 20+ can lights at the office have 16 watt GE LEDs in them.  They are all are cooking the base of the bulbs.  I have had about 4 or 5 of them fail now.  The fail is down to 1 or 2 watt equivalent. 

  21. Nick Flandrey says:

    @rick, yep.   I've been talking about the secondary economy for a while now, and it's growing.   Big retailers poisoned the well with their own branded outlet stores when they raised prices and went mainstream.

    Years ago, Ross Dress for Less was complaining that they couldn't get enough merch because stores weren't over ordering like in the past.

    fwiw, I stopped even looking at liquidation.com years ago.   The competition to buy got too strong and prices were far too high.   I still occasionally look at govdeals mainly because nasa uses them (or did last time I looked.) 

    I tell new flippers one truth I've learned.  It's easy to buy.  It's a whole lot harder to sell.

    n

  22. RickH says:

    It's easy to buy.  It's a whole lot harder to sell.
     

    The same with writing books. Or web sites. Marketing is hard. And usually expensive, with a low ROI (return on investment).

    Guess why I know. I have books that are approaching double digits in numbers sold. (Which sounds impressive until you think about it.)  And web sites that are great ideas (IMHO), but visits and revenue are minimal.

  23. Pecancorner says:

    The Philips flat LED bulbs were an interesting compromise, but no one was going to pay $10/each for a light bulb once the novelty of LED wore off.

    Heat dissipation is one of the biggest limitations on bulb life. I've cooked a number of CFL's over the years, and the same fixtures are not good for LED's.

    I'm learning a lot from this discussion of light bulbs.  I've been continually disappointed in bulbs marketed as 'long lasting'. From the old days of the 5-year light bulb sold over the phone to "benefit the blind" to more recent high dollar alternative bulbs claiming to both give as much light as incandescent ones and to last for years.

    I happily believed all their claims and paid 5X, or more, the cost of regular bulbs in order to get those many years of service. They all lied. None of them lasted. It hurts to spend $10 on a bulb for over the kitchen sink and have it burn out in a year. and that is every year, because it also has a funny base on it.  

    Esp when the incandescent porch lights, which are flipped on and off with similar frequency, have not needed to be changed in the 14 years we've lived here. 

    It has always seemed to me that the fixture somehow played a part in bulb life span, but I never understood why.  Ya'll's posts are at least letting me know it is not my imagination LOL

  24. Robert "Bob" Sprowl says:

    Having issues with my system upgrade which I started yesterday afternoon.  

    I’m in the process of upgrading my home-built Desktop system.  It has an AMD Ryzen 5 2600 CPU and I’m moving to a Ryzen 7-5600G; both use the AM4 socket.  The motherboard is a ASRock X470 Master SLI/ac with 32 GB.  Backed my data up and used PassMark to get a basis line performance for my current system. 

    I ordered the CPU from Newegg.  The instructions advised me to check that the motherboard could take the CPU.  I went to the ASRock site and yes, the CPU was OK for my motherboard but I needed to flash the BIOS.

    I haven’t had to done this often, so I wrote the instructions down ( ten steps), downloaded the file, etc.  AMD’s ”Instant Flash” hung when I ran it but I let it sit for over four hours before I did a “Control-Alt-Delete” which rebooted the system.  The system came up normally and the BIOS was now 4.40 vice the original 3.24. 

    The CPU switch was easy.  Remove the four screws holding the fan assembly to the motherboard, unplug the fan, and lifted it out.  The CPU came out too, but the locking lever was still down.  The pins were straight.  Opened the locking lever, dropped the new CPU in place and locked it down.  Could not remove it easily.  Unlocked it and it came out easily.  Put it back, locked down and installed the new fan (which looked just like the old one and had AMD’s heat sink compound already on it). 

    Started the system.  Not good.  The fans come on, some LEDS on the motherboard came on but the system shut down and restarted on its own and the monitor remained blank.  The shutdown restart cycle happened several (many) times while the monitor remained blank. 

    I turned the system off and ate dinner.  Decided to remove the new CPU and reinstall the old one.  Started the system without any problems.  Reran the PassMark benchmark without any problems.  Rebooted and repeated the last step of the flash install which was to load the default settings into the BIOS.  Rebooted.  System started and ran fine. 

    Removed the old CPU, checked that the new CPU had no bent pins, and installed the new CPU.  Same partial start-restart cycle as before. 

    I’m running Windows 10, using an ASUS Radeon RX570 video card, and a Samsung SSD 970 EVO 500 GB boot disk.

    I think (hope) the new CPU is bad.  Anybody have any other ideas?  Did I miss something?  

  25. PaultheManc says:

    I think (hope) the new CPU is bad.  Anybody have any other ideas?  Did I miss something?

    I would probably reflash the BIOS again. Just the way I think!

  26. Nick Flandrey says:

    @bob, sounds pretty thorough.   Also sounds like your old cpu was just sitting on the socket and not locked in place.  If so, that is crazy that it ran.

    Google "boot looping" and you mb and/or your cpu to see if anyone else had the same issue.  That's about all I can suggest that you haven't said you tried.

    Maybe one stick of memory at a time?

    n

  27. Greg Norton says:

    I think (hope) the new CPU is bad.  Anybody have any other ideas?  Did I miss something? 

    The motherboard documentation doesn't cover any diagnostics based on the illuminated LEDs during the parial restart?

    How old is the power supply. Do you have another one you can swap out easily?

    Sometimes doing a clear of the BIOS settings with software doesnt work reliably so try a hard reset of the NVRAM by unplugging the computer and removing the coin battery for a few minutes, hitting the power button somewhere in there to make sure the caps drain.

    Where do you live? What are the static issues? New parts are *extremely* sensitive, and you will want to handle them with a static strap protocol if you live in a dry climate.

  28. Greg Norton says:

    I would probably reflash the BIOS again. Just the way I think!

    Its possible. Some ASRock AM4 boards also have "bridge" BIOS updates which the support page will indicate as necessary to install later versions.

    I've had heat issues with my kids Steam PC since before Christmas. After much swapping out of parts, it has come down to a problem with either the ASRock motherboard or the Ryzen 5 1600 CPU. I'm waiting on a motherboard from Newegg for the final test.

    The system does boot, however.

    1
    1
  29. Greg Norton says:

    Sometimes doing a clear of the BIOS settings with software doesnt work reliably so try a hard reset of the NVRAM by unplugging the computer and removing the coin battery for a few minutes, hitting the power button somewhere in there to make sure the caps drain.

    I forgot to add: Be sure to put the coin battery back before restarting the computer.

  30. ITGuy1998 says:

    Check that the RAM is compatible – maybe the new proc needs RAM with different timing?

    It's also possible that the processor isn't compatible, even though the manufacturer says it is. Maybe the chipset is just old enough to not like the newer CPU.

    I generally don't upgrade CPU's. I always do a processor, ram, and motherboard swap. The only exception was ages ago on my 486 DX2/33. It had the overdrive socket, and I put a Pentium overdrive processor in it. Did well enough to make Windows 95 scream…fun times.

  31. Greg Norton says:

    fwiw, I stopped even looking at liquidation.com years ago.   The competition to buy got too strong and prices were far too high.   I still occasionally look at govdeals mainly because nasa uses them (or did last time I looked.) 

    The local ISD (Round Rock) switched to govdeals for their surplus rather than staging semi annual sales at their warehouse.

    At the last in-person sale I attended, things got real tense with a group of Pakistanis when the ISD limited laptop and desktop computers to one per customer. According to the staff, the Pakistanis were used to waiting overnight to be first in line so they could buy all of the laptops at open, and the new rules were not sitting well.

    I looked around and got the heck out.

  32. Alan says:

    >> A woman was killed and five wounded in a shooting Saturday night at a Portland park where people had gathered to protest the police shooting of Amir Locke

    @nick, do you consider the Locke shooting to be justified?

  33. Alan says:

    @Bob, does the system POST correctly? Does F2 get you to the BIOS setup menu?

  34. Alan says:

    @Ray, any suggestions for a camera for someone interested in photography and wants to move beyond their phone camera? Any value in the used market? Thanks. 

  35. lynn says:

    "Roku Reaches 60.1 Million Active Users"

        https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/roku-reaches-60-1-million-active-users/

    "In its Q4 earnings report today, Roku announced that it has exceeded 60 million active accounts, an increase of 8.9 million for the quarter."

    "“Audiences around the world continue to shift to TV streaming due to its affordability, ease of use, and breadth of content choices. In 2021, we increased active accounts by 8.9 million globally, ending the year with over 60 million active accounts. To put that in context, Roku’s U.S. active account base surpassed the U.S. video subscribers of all of the cable companies combined,” the report says."

    "Platform revenue was up 49% year over year, reaching $703.6 million in Q4. However, player revenue dropped 9% year over year and was at $161.7 million in Q4."

    Who knew that a business built around a cheap little Linux box would do so well ?

  36. paul says:

    From the old days of the 5-year light bulb sold over the phone to "benefit the blind"

    I bought some of those!  Then I thought "what do blind folks care about light bulbs?"  Anyway, they were marked as 140 volts versus GE or Sylvania at the grocery store marked at 110 volts.

    Before I swapped the floods in the tracklights to LED, I still had a few (ok, 3 of 14 total) GE 75 watt flood lights that I bought waaaaay back when I lived in the Dorm and then a few apartments that I used in clamp-on lights.  Up-lighting.  1978 or so.  But _always_ on a dimmer.  Even full blast (once in a while) the voltage was dropped 5 volts.

    I replaced the bedroom ceiling bulbs with Crees.  They look just like a 60 watt GE soft frosted bulb.  So, ok Mom, leave the lights on but it's just 21 watts of juice instead of 120 watts.

    I have a couple of Crees in the laundry room.  One in a porcelain socket, one in a cheapo fixture with a white globe.  Both base up.  No problems at all.  Sure, the packaging says "not for use in enclosed fixtures" and I look at the fixture and it says something like "200 watts max".   I'm pretty sure my 60 watt equivalent LED bulb that draws 10.5 watts is going to be fine.

    So far, I'm right.

    I have a few of the flat Phillips bulbs.  I like them, good color. 

    I've had one LED bulb fail.  An expensive but cheap bulb from Lowes.

    For the kitchen, I had a fluorescent fixture.  24" tube.  It was about a tube every 18 months.   An entire new fixture every seven or eight years.  Under the cabinet I had an 18" fluorescent fixture.  Just about the same life span. 

    Swapped both out with the equivalent LED fixtures and here we are, five years later and poor me is grousing about having to dust the fixture over the sink.  Both are still instant on and no flickering on cold mornings.

  37. lynn says:

    I tell new flippers one truth I've learned.  It's easy to buy.  It's a whole lot harder to sell.

    n

    That describes my software business !  It is easy to spend money on.  Every sale is dadgum hard.

  38. lynn says:

    Having issues with my system upgrade which I started yesterday afternoon.  

    I’m in the process of upgrading my home-built Desktop system.  It has an AMD Ryzen 5 2600 CPU and I’m moving to a Ryzen 7-5600G; both use the AM4 socket.  The motherboard is a ASRock X470 Master SLI/ac with 32 GB.  Backed my data up and used PassMark to get a basis line performance for my current system. 

    I ordered the CPU from Newegg.  The instructions advised me to check that the motherboard could take the CPU.  I went to the ASRock site and yes, the CPU was OK for my motherboard but I needed to flash the BIOS.

    New motherboard time.  Does not sound as compatible as was stated.

  39. Greg Norton says:

    I’m in the process of upgrading my home-built Desktop system.  It has an AMD Ryzen 5 2600 CPU and I’m moving to a Ryzen 7-5600G; both use the AM4 socket.  The motherboard is a ASRock X470 Master SLI/ac with 32 GB.  Backed my data up and used PassMark to get a basis line performance for my current system. 

    I didn't catch that you moved to a 'G' series CPU with integrated graphics.

    Did you power down, remove your discrete graphics card, and try rebooting with the video output plugged into the proper port on the motherboard?

    I believe the BIOS default is to support integrated graphics. I have an A series in my home server, and I don’t run a separate graphics card in that machine.

  40. lynn says:

    Having issues with my system upgrade which I started yesterday afternoon.  

    I’m in the process of upgrading my home-built Desktop system.  It has an AMD Ryzen 5 2600 CPU and I’m moving to a Ryzen 7-5600G; both use the AM4 socket.  The motherboard is a ASRock X470 Master SLI/ac with 32 GB.  Backed my data up and used PassMark to get a basis line performance for my current system. 

    I ordered the CPU from Newegg.  The instructions advised me to check that the motherboard could take the CPU.  I went to the ASRock site and yes, the CPU was OK for my motherboard but I needed to flash the BIOS.

    Put the old CPU back in and see what happens.  Be sure to put the old fan back on too.

  41. lynn says:

    I've had one LED bulb fail.  An expensive but cheap bulb from Lowes.

    I have had a couple of dozen LED bulbs fail at the office now.  Inside and outside. 

  42. Ray Thompson says:

    I've been continually disappointed in bulbs marketed as 'long lasting'

    Heat is the killer on LED bulbs. LEDs operate on current and need current limiting circuits otherwise they will run away and self-destruct. Some bulbs are better than others at dissipating heat and is why some bulbs last longer. The fixture is also a factor. Open fixtures, such as table lamps, will last longer than ceiling lights in enclosed cans. Hot wire bulbs dissipate heat via infrared out the front. LEDs dissipate through the base. Fixtures designed for hot wire may not provide proper heat relief.

    Anybody have any other ideas?  Did I miss something?

    Remove every interface card and all but one stick of memory. Listen for POST beeps. No POST beeps would indicate a bad CPU. Only way to check is to try in another known working motherboard.

    Failing that I would hazard a guess that the mother board is not fully compatible. Flashing the BIOS is a good step. Wiping out the CMOS settings by removing the battery is a good step. There may even be a CMOS reset button on the motherboard. It certainly will not hurt. Wiping CMOS just makes it longer to boot as the BIOS has to go through the hardware check and the date and time will not be preserved. I have used motherboards with a dead CMOS battery for years. Battery was not easily replaceable because it was soldered in place.

    @Alan any suggestions for a camera for someone interested in photography and wants to move beyond their phone camera?

    I would consider getting a new iPhone 13. The newer cameras are excellent especially with the three lens arrangement. It is a camera that is generally always with the person.

    Beyond that seriously consider a mirrorless camera. They are lighter, don't suffer shutter blackout. Nikon and Canon both have excellent cameras. The better the camera, the more the cost. But the better is mostly in features are more obscure such as focus stacking, higher frame rates, dual memory cards, higher speed memory writing, larger frame buffer.

    Used cameras can be a good deal. Important item is shutter count. Anything over 150K is heavily used. Over 200K don't buy the camera. 50K and under still leaves a lot of shutter activations. There is generally a menu item that will display shutter count.

    Don't get caught up with "pixel wars". Anything at 20 megapixels or above is more than good enough. Unless there is a need for heavy cropping or extremely larger enlargement, think billboard, then 20 megapixels is fine.

    When choosing I would also drop down a level in cost on the camera and spend more on good optics. A camera that can do 20 megapixels with optics that can only resolve 10 megapixels is not wise. Good optics help more than the camera.

    A Nikon D500, an older model, but still in stock, is an excellent choice. Combine that with Tamron lenses is a good combination. A 24-70 is a good lens for everyday use, mild wide angle, mild telephoto. Not good for wildlife, but good for general photography.

    My tastes tend to lean toward more high end stuff and you did not indicate a budget. When you do decide go with a camera that feels good in your hands, controls seem logical to you. The human interface is really important. If the camera is awkward, then the pictures will be awkward.

    Do give some serious consideration to the iPhone 13 PRO. The pictures are outstanding, better than any SLR 15 of years ago. The video is almost comparable to any $5K video cameras on the market today when using the Cinematic mode. Impressive stuff. Optics are not as good but for general photography quite remarkable for a device that is in the pocket and available most of the time.

  43. Ray Thompson says:

    I believe the BIOS default is to support integrated graphics.

    Most BIOS's will default to an add-on graphics card as the primary video when the card is detected. On-board graphics is the secondary. As best my memory recalls.

  44. Greg Norton says:

    On the ground media in Portland. Not that they know any more than the Daily Mail, but they aren't sitting in an office in Sunrise, Florida — my guess about where the DM US newsroom is located.

    https://www.kptv.com/news/1-dead-5-injured-after-mass-shooting-in-ne-portland/article_34f4f788-9203-11ec-b402-2f2dd11b1cc5.html?block_id=994431

    My wife remined me that her associate in Vantucky lived not far from there in a house they rented after arriving from Texas.

    I just remember the idiot husband, the "spirits blogger", who, from as much as my wife could piece together from snippets of conversation, did something so stinky running for office as a minor "Fringe Loony" party candidate while the two lived in Fredericksburg that they ended up having to leave town.

    Gotta wonder how bad it was.

    I’m guessing Wee Pierre will get to stay in Canada. 🙂

  45. drwilliams says:

    Last Thursday I posted this from Kevin Roche:

    2. Being responsible for public health means being responsible for all of public health, not just the specific disease you are trying to limit.  Whatever measures you take need to be evaluated in regard to their total impact on public health and need to be considered over a long period of time.  In this epidemic, in Minnesota and elsewhere, government actions have done more damage than the virus, and that damage will persist for years or decades.  This includes damage to children’s mental health, educational and social attainment and future economic prospects; damage that cannot be undone.  And more deaths will ultimately be caused by the responses to the epidemic than were actually caused by CV-19.

    https://healthy-skeptic.com/2022/02/17/what-gov-walz-and-doh-got-wrong-and-still-get-wrong/

    Today on HotAir:

    This is a story that first surfaced earlier in the week but hasn’t gained a lot of traction yet. (This is perhaps understandable given the situation in Ukraine, but also likely by intention.) For the first time in decades, the CDC has changed many of the recognized milestones for childhood development in terms of speech and cognitive functions. These markers are considered important in terms of recognizing when children aren’t progressing quickly enough, suggesting the potential need to determine if some sort of impairment is being observed and if the child may require greater medical attention. The curious thing about the changes instituted by the CDC is that in a majority of the cases, they have lowered the standards rather than raising them. I first noticed this news on Twitter, as so often happens these days.

    https://hotair.com/jazz-shaw/2022/02/20/cdc-quietly-lowers-the-bar-for-early-childhood-speech-development-n449892

    I'm sure there are people saving the changes in the CDC website. Just in case. Just in case the CDC and the National Archives (or whatever government agency) has "no records". Just in case the Wayback Machine gets a visit from some bureaucrat that starts with "Nice website you have here. Be a shame if…"

  46. Greg Norton says:

    Most BIOS's will default to an add-on graphics card as the primary video when the card is detected. On-board graphics is the secondary. As best my memory recalls.

    I've never tried on my home server. Eventually, when Bitcoin implodes, I'm going to buy a round of graphics cards upgrades and put my daughter's fanless GT730 card into the server for Nvidia CUDA programming fun.

  47. Alan says:

    @Bob, are you using UEFI, and if so, is your graphics card compatible? 

  48. Robert "Bob" Sprowl says:

    Thanks for all the good ideas.

    I've built several AMD systems around a new CPU socket and then upgraded the processor later.  Never had a problem until now.

    I've switched the CPUs several times now.  Both have (and have not) stayed with the fan when it was lifted out.  Their heat sink compound is sticky.

    The power supply is a 750 watt Corsair TX750M.  

    Memory is 4 sticks of 8 GB DDR4 3000 (PC4 24000).  What I've read elsewhere says the higher speed is better but not required.  Memory sticks have to be installed in pairs.

    I will reflash the BIOS.  Why I haven't I don't know.

    I will remove the graphics card but not hopeful it will solve my problem.

    Nothing in the manuals about beeps codes, etc.  Nothing about trouble shooting.  Nothing about graphic options. 

  49. lynn says:

    https://publicenergynumberone.com/2022/02/19/forget-inane-media-preoccupations-and-pay-attention-the-world-is-running-out-of-fuel-we-are-all-going-to-pay/

    No comment needed.

    A little bit over the top.  The rest of world other than the Middle East needs to start fracking their shale reservoirs right now.  The Netherlands has plenty of shale oil and natural gas.  There are several other shale oil fields across the planet that are being blocked by environmentalists.  Plus, there are huge oil fields in the Arctic and the Antarctic that have been blocked by the USA. Russia is drilling in the Arctic right now.

    The USA is in awesome shape.  We are shipping a million barrels a day of light sweet crude oil, a million barrels per day of diesel, and a million barrels per day of 89 octane gasoline to Europe.  We are shipping ten to twenty billion ft3 of LNG to Europe and Asia every day (half by contract, half in the spot market).

    We may need to stop doing this in the future.  We have plenty of natural gas, proven reserves for at least a 100 years, probably a thousand years.  We have fracked all of the "easy" shale oil fields in the USA but their are several more deep shale oil fields.  And then there are the Rocky Mountain reservoirs at 30,000 feet depth that is the current limit of our technology.  In fact, Shell Oil was considering building 300 nuclear power plants in the Rockies to liquefy the oil via steam injection and get it to surface.

    We may be short on crude oil, production is currently 12 to 13 million barrels per day in the USA.  The Alaskan North Slope is down from 3 million barrels/day to its current quarter million barrels per day.  Texas alone is producing 5 to 6 million barrels per day of crude oil from the shale projects.  The crude oil from California and Florida state waters could be easily increased by at least another two million barrels per day.

    In short, get rid of the environmentalist stops on crude oil drilling in the USA and across the world and the crude oil production will be dramatically increase.  Get the price of crude oil up to $150/bbl and natural gas to $10/mmbtu and you will be amazed at how much crude and natural gas come out of the boonies.

    Don't do anything and get ready for $10 gasoline.

  50. drwilliams says:

    @Lynn

    Reserves do not matter.

    The limitations on transportation fuels are refining and transporting.

    The limitation on food production is the price of natural gas to make fertilizer.

    When we don't have enough food and can't heat our homes because the government is selling natural gas to Europe to protect them from their stupid mistakes, energy allocation is going to become a tool of government oppression.

    “Don’t do anything and get ready for $10 gasoline.”

    You mean $10 per liter?
    And pasta and beans sold in 100g increments, with no meat at all?

  51. Nick Flandrey says:

    Went and moved some stuff around.  Took BOL stuff from my secondary location to one of my storage units (small but near the secondary) and brought all the non-BOL stuff from there to the secondary location.   I will be having an auction of palletized stuff out of the secondary, and two of them came from the storage unit. 

    Unfortunately, the second day of lifting and carrying in a row has my back SCREAMING at me.    I may have to take something and go to bed.

    Kids are off tomorrow but wife is working… so I'm stuck home anyway.   And with three days or more of rain in the forecast I figured I better get the movements done regardless of the cost.  Yes I am that dumb.

    Hurting right now, gonna hang upside down for a bit and see if that helps.

    n

  52. Nick Flandrey says:

    @nick, do you consider the Locke shooting to be justified?

    alan, I haven't even looked at it.  What I saw without reading was that there is lots of body cam footage, and he woke up and pointed a gun at them.  Beyond that, I don't know anything about it.

    My sarcastic point was that blacks kill far more blacks than white cops kill blacks.   If a black person wants to be fearful, it's more  logical to be fearful of other blacks.   And without any more information about the shooter, I'm just playing the odds.  Very few whites shoot into a crowd of people, but an awful lot of blacks do that every weekend.

    n

  53. lynn says:

    Reserves do not matter.

    The reserves matter extremely.  The reserves hold the prices down for the producers.  People look at the reserves and think that we have enough of everything.  But since we are keeping the USA, Mexico, Canada, Japan, China, India, and Europe going, we are blowing through those reserves right now. 

    BTW, half of the natural gas produced in the USA is flared.  It was 2/3rds two years ago.  We need a lot more pipelines in the USA before we can use all that natural gas, much less sell it someone else for cash money.

    BTW, do you know much our foreign sales are of that LNG, crude oil, natural gas, gasoline, and diesel ?  I don't but I suspect that it is at least half of our foreign sales. Cash dollars !

    Also, the refineries are only running at 80% capacity right now.  That is, the refinereies that have not closed down.  We have closed five refineries in the last two years that I know of.  Maybe ten as several refineries are on extended “maintenance outages”.  The only moderator on that is that every single refinery in Mexico shut down now.  The Mexicans have been on strike for two years.  And they shoot at the scabs.  I had a friend down there working on a refinery gas plant Christmas of 2019.  He is never going back after getting shot at.

  54. Alan says:

    >> Don't do anything and get ready for $10 gasoline.

    @lynn, are you on the F-150 Lightening waiting list yet? 

  55. lynn says:

    >> Don't do anything and get ready for $10 gasoline.

    @lynn, are you on the F-150 Lightening waiting list yet? 

    No. I have major range anxiety.

    If the price of gasoline jumps by a factor of three, so will the price of natural gas.  60% of the electricity in Texas comes from natural gas so the price of electricity will double at least.  And the other electricity producers in Texas will jump their prices also as Texas runs a reverse Dutch auction every five minutes to produce electricity for the market.

  56. Nick Flandrey says:

    Tired and sore.  I'm taking something and going to bed.

    See you all in the morning.

    n

  57. lynn says:

    In short, get rid of the environmentalist stops on crude oil drilling in the USA and across the world and the crude oil production will be dramatically increase.  Get the price of crude oil up to $150/bbl and natural gas to $10/mmbtu and you will be amazed at how much crude and natural gas come out of the boonies.

    Don't do anything and get ready for $10 gasoline.

    BTW, three years ago we had 15 million people working in the oil and natural gas field in the USA.  We now have ten million, been a whole lot of people take early retirement.  Jump the energy prices up and we could jump the employment back to 15 million.  Maybe even 18 million.

    This fool in the white house is trying to damage the oil and natural gas industry as much as he can.  He has an agenda that I do not totally understand.  He has hired a bunch of people who are true believers.  True believers are dangerous.

    When will the people of the USA wake up ?

  58. Michael+J+Hart says:

    Nick,

    Why do you worry about what happens in Soviet Cannuckistan. I get that is a free country but it isn't here.Those people are getting stomped as well as innocent Mormons get murdered here. Same police, different country. It is the reason I don't prep much anymore. People aren't real. Can't compare this to the anti-Trump riots but it plays well to Tamir Rice in Cleveland. We can never excuse Jackboots. Thanks for keepimg the page alive. This place has real people except for Steve, he has to be Tyler Durden.

  59. SteveF says:

    I did not have textual relations with that website, ZeroHedge. I never told anybody the world was ending, not a single time. Never. These allegations are false and I need to go back to work for the DayNotes people.

  60. nick flandrey says:

    I get that is a free country but it isn't here.

    I spent some time working there, and feel some kinship.  We also have Canadian readers, so it's of interest to them.  

    -It supports my thesis that this is one of those times when everything changes, I mean come on, polite Canadians trampling old ladies?  The denizens of Hell must be starting to sharpen their ice skates.  

    -It serves as a caution- if this could happen up there, in first world Canada, then it could happen here (some people are still in denial).

    Thanks for the kind words.  Most of the time it's a blessing for me to have somewhere to "share" my thoughts…

    n

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