Shipped to be another great day like it was yesterday.
I got stuff done. Still have more on the list for today though. I deff want a brad maker up here. SteveF got me thinking about it, add it makes sense.
Met another person that knew the previous owner. This guy didn’t know he’d passed. He was very upset as he used to come by and fish with the previous owner, and he’d brought the kids to fish with him. After he recovered, I invited him to fish with me. And I got a lesson in fishing this lake.
Meeting people and gettng local knowledge, priceless.
Don’t forget to stack up more than just cans.
n
Make sure the installation gets redone properly. Dishwashers and garbage disposals have weird code requirements here in Texas which I've never seen anywhere else.
A light switch to the dishwasher for the wash cycle?!?
And of course Home Depot doesn't sell the 79 cent wire clamp for the garbage disposal by itself which meant either buying the $20 "install kit" or waiting another weekend to finish the project, which already consumed two fixing other code violations in the plumbing.
And I'm still in violation when I go to sell.
My wife had a patient at the VA who got frequent jabs by lying to CVS/Walgreens when the shots first became widely available. No word on his current condition, but I assume he's still alive.
If the mRNA vaccines had not involve such specific storage requirements, I have no doubt that the jabs would have been arbitrage fodder here in the US at this time last year.
@Jenny – I wasn't kidding about how serious the city of Dunedin, FL is about this event. Unfortunately, The Times has a paywall, but I think you get one article.
Temps aren't in the 90s this weekend, but it looks like they had lots of wind/rain. Tampa weather is in transition and unstable this time of year.
https://www.tampabay.com/gallery/2022/04/02/photos-dunedin-highland-games-return-for-2022/
When I was a kid, before Scientology drove the local Clearwater paper out of business and the Times had an old school bureau chief in town, the coverage and photography of the event were much more impressive. Still, there is no substitute for going in person.
Code, schmode! Do it right, regardless. Codes have gone wild in some areas. They used to be (mostly) sensible.
Don't mention smoke and CO detectors.
Texas is a weird combination of "we don't give a sh*t" on some issues and beyond California-level puckered sphincter on others.
Everyone seems to "swim naked" (as Warren Buffett terms it) until caught. For a homeowner, that happens when they go to sell the house.
Fortunately, I don't plan on selling ours. That will be up to our executor. Don't want trouble, though, so I try.
Currently 72F and sunny with clear skies. Water temp is 68F.
WRT building codes, mostly they are there to protect the owner by providing a minimum standard. Some areas they've turned into an extortion racket or tool of oppression. We're outside of anyone's code jurisdiction, but I still will do it right.
Heading home in a bit, wife and kids already hit the road.
N
@Greg
Wow – that’s an enormous event. I bet it’s a lot of fun. And the music must be amazing.
If there is a bigger, smellier festering pile of putrified crap than Windows 10, I hope that it’s also a Microsoft product so Hell doesn’t have to expand any further to properly torture the damned.
Yeah, about that…. /if/ I can't figure out the problem with USB and I need to buy a new box, and /if/ Product Activation is all that big of a deal, no problem. Bye bye Windows and hello to Ubuntu or Mint.
When I replaced the 2TB drive with a 1TB SSD about three years ago, Windows didn't seem to notice. Maybe Acronis has an inside track.
Maybe the box is worn out. I bought it from Newegg January 2013.
I spent a lot of time a few years ago to get my mail out of Outlook98 and into Thunderbird. You can't read .pst files with notepad.
Mail and Web are taken care of. FileZilla is available. Ditto VLC. I'll find something to replace PaintShopPro 7 (by Jasc). And something to replace WordPad/Write and NotePad. There is software for the Dymo lable printer. Same for my Lemark printer.
Might even find something for the Epson scanner. Not holding my breath, but.
Sure, there will be problems. Like any other OS change. My dad was a Marine, I know ALL of the cuss words. 🙂
“If there is a bigger, smellier festering pile of putrified crap than Windows 10, I hope that it’s also a Microsoft product so Hell doesn’t have to expand any further to properly torture the damned.”
I have always considered myself an engineering and business user, so am different from some of the folks here who are also programmers. Since the 1960s, I have used many of the major operating systems and quite a bit of the software. That includes various ‘nixes, DEC stuff, Univac, and various personal computer OSes. I started using Windows in 1989, and have used most major versions, except XP. I did support XP as a volunteer. My all-time favorite is 2000, followed by NT 4 and 3.11. I took a detour into Linux for about six years, and finally came back to Windows.
Since my wife was having compatibility trouble with the applications that were available for Linux, I bought her a new notebook, her choice not mine. It had W10 preinstalled. At the same time, I upgraded a box I already had from W7 to W10 for me. I’ll admit, I had some trepidation. I have been using it for about a year and a half as our primary OS, along with Office 365 (now Microsoft 365?) Like every version except 98, W10 has been solid for me. Sure, it took some tweaks to rid it of some of the more egregious privacy stuff, but this is the first version I have ever upgraded from a previous version without a clean install. It “just works” for me.
But wait. It does some terrible things by design. For instance, it refuses to display an accurate file structure. Instead, it has all sorts of virtual linked stuff, plus the execrable “Documents” and other built-in folders. Try explaining that to a user who already has trouble navigating and finding stuff. Even creating one’s own directory structure is only a partial solution. The default virtualizations are still baked into most apps, and some are inconsistent with the file manager. Again, no big deal for someone used to dealing with this nonsense, but for a novice it can be baffling.
I could go on, but there is no perfect OS or application. IMHO, Android is worse, especially when using some third party apps, including those from the hated Microsoft.
BTW, I used to use Apple computers, but got away from them too long ago to be relevant. However, looking over friends’ shoulders, and communicating with some nontechnical users, I find many of the similar issues, but different enough to be really annoying. It is a different kind of proprietary hell.
These sand-brained devices are supposed to be our servants, but we are at the mercy of the designers who have no clue about what many of their customers want. I think the only solution is to make as much as possible configurable, and let the users tailor their systems to their own needs. Some of these custom environments could be packaged for the less patient or experienced among us. Linux is the most advanced at that, but has a long way to go. At least they are trying. I will always have a soft spot in my head for Linux. It is amazing how a ragtag bunch of mostly volunteers can achieve this. This admiration comes from someone who in the old days tried to coach nontechnical users, ranging from secretaries to attorneys how to use software. Herding cats comes to mind.
I sincerely hope you find something that you like… no love, whether it is from Microsoft or some other supplier. It might be out there. I know, I searched. Good luck.
P.S. Rick, I thought you updated the editor. I just had trouble posting the last comment from my computer, and editing did not help; hence the quotes.
Earlier today, I ran into the dreaded Android editing problems, and all I did was type a hort comment, which had dozens of HTML lines inserted. I couldn’t remove them. Curious.
Please, I know how much fun (not) it is to satisfy a bunch of us. Take your time. I can limp along. Just thought you would like to know.
I lived in a apartment in McAllen that had a wall switch for the dishwasher. The landlord didn't know why. All I could figure it was just in case the dishwasher went insane and decided to electrocute you.
Nice dishwasher. 18 inches wide instead of the standard 24 wide. From Sears? Perfect for a one bedroom apartment.
No switches anywhere else. Not even the duplex in Austin off of East Rundberg.
@paul, seems like you and I have had the same problems, but with different operating systems. Proves my point: two people can commiserate over the same problem, and both might find solutions by selecting the others’ stuff.
If we ever meet over a beer or two, we can have fun discussing our sad experiences with software. Or cars. Or (fill in the blankety-blank.) 🙂
Sounds like a plan!!!!
The updated editor is in the newest version of the theme, still in testing. Work on it has been delayed due to some other projects. The theme will have the option (set by the administrator) to use the default comment editor, or CKeditor version 4 (the current version), or CKEditor5 (recommended). It works quite well in my testing.
I've had to update several of my plugins to be compatible with PHP 8; mostly adjustments to check for non-existent variables. And there are a few minor new options in the theme.
I hope to have it done sometime this month, or, as Jerry used to say "Real Soon Now".
Regarding Windows 10 to 11 upgrade: i did that on my primary laptop (HP Envy) after I replaced the 256G SSD with a 512GB SSD (the C drive), and the 1TB hard disk with a 2TB SSD (drive D). The drive upgrades were easy. The Windows 11 upgrade was easy.
No major problems with using Windows 11 for over a month. Some minor tweaks to get the settings the way I wanted, but they were easy enough to do (and easy enough to find via the googles/bings/ducks).
“I spent a lot of time a few years ago to get my mail out of Outlook98 and into Thunderbird. You can't read .pst files with notepad.”
I did that very easily, but first I looked for conversion utilities. Didn’t see what I liked, so got to thinking. I had converted my email to IMAP a couple of years prior. I simply logged on to the account with Thunderbird, and all was automatic. Did the reverse when I went back to Outlook about two years ago. As a matter of fact, I have had two different computers, Linux with Thunderbird and Windows with Outlook simultaneously logged on to the same account, and both were happy. Same for Android using three or more email apps. Give it a try.
I was skeptical about IMAP, and hesitated a few years to try it. I had heard some bad things about it, and all my tech-y friends had stuck with POP. I went so far as to set up a trial with a couple of old addresses. Worked so well that I switched. Never looked back.
Thanks, @Rick. I have been a bit distracted by other things, and forgot what you said a few days earlier. The improvements will be worth the wait. I miss Jerry and his colloquialisms. Real Soon Now brought back memories.
@Rick, I got the following message while attempting to post my last comment just a few minutes ago. Not very specific, but earlier I had brief DNS error messages while refreshing. These were followed by a normal refresh after a slight delay.
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.
Please contact the server administrator at webmaster@ttgnet.com to inform them of the time this error occurred, and the actions you performed just before this error.
More information about this error may be available in the server error log.
This message persisted for about five minutes, regardless of how I attempted to go back or refresh. I opened another tab and just went to the journal, and it worked fine. Went back to the first tab, and all was automatically OK. My Internet has been fine today, and other sites are snappy. It is just this one with the trouble. Hope this helps your trouble shooting.
There is definitely something unique to this site.
Ah, posting results in a couple minute delay, but refreshing the other tab without posting is quick. (I typed this comment directly in the editor, but pasted the previous ones.)
Typing resulted in quick results. I believe you have pointed this out before. Just trying to help.
JimB – those ‘500’ errors (which is what you got) seem to happen more often with pasted content. The last time I looked at the log, the message was being caught by the firewall because it contained some hacky bit of hidden character sequences. Pasting the same content will just get you the error again.
I’ve tried to look at the contents of the blocked message via the logs, but they don’t show the entire ‘POST’, so can’t determine the funky codes. But the same pasted content will keep on causing the error, no matter what you do it it before submitting.a
It’s blocked by the firewall, of which I have no control in this hosting plan. A more expensive hosting plan would give me more direct control over the server, but then I would have to ‘do’ more control on the server (updates, etc, etc).
Some have gotten the pasted content by creating a short comment, then going back and editing the comment and pasting it in. Which is a weird bug (or maybe a ‘feature’). I always Ctrl-A, Ctrl-C the comment before I submit.
@Greg, get your tickets yet?
This might be gearing up to be literally the biggest party on Earth
“Some have gotten the pasted content by creating a short comment, then going back and editing the comment and pasting it in. Which is a weird bug (or maybe a ‘feature’). I always Ctrl-A, Ctrl-C the comment before I submit.”
Interestingly, my comments above have all been posted, even after refreshing a stalled-out submission.
I like to paste, because Word has all my personal substitutions and autocorrections. Typing naked in the comment box makes me go back and clean up my copy. I understand the workarounds, and have used them in the past. I don’t usually have any problems when using my desktop computer, just from Android. Hopefully your coming changes will fix that.
Again, please don’t take this as nattering and fussing. This site is too valuable to make people mad, especially those who wield control. 😉
I thought Uncle Joe had exclusive rights to hair??
https://www.businessinsider.com/michigan-rally-trump-says-jen-psaki-really-beautiful-red-hair-2022-4
Sweet Baby Jesus!
No. The Rolling Stones played the nearby racetrack ampitheater a few months ago, and a similar sized crowd resulted in a giant traffic clusterf*ck.
https://www.kut.org/transportation/2022-04-01/dont-expect-traffic-problems-around-circuit-of-the-americas-to-be-fixed-anytime-soon
The basic issue is that the area around the airport and Tony's factory is reached optimally only by toll road, and people are cheap.
The post linking to the April Fools gag yesterday contained many pieces of information which are rumored about the situation at the factory and with the Jesus truck. Someone either lives here or really did their homework.
Well, I have left Texas for a few days. You guys don't blow it up while I am gone.
I see that Oklahoma has raised their speed limit to 75 mph like Texas who was following New Mexico ???. Running 75+ mph while listening to Jethro Tull is cool.
To the beggar who was standing on I-30 in Dallas. You sir are an Idiot.
And to the guy who rolled his Tundra pickup and landed upside down on I-35W in Dallas, I will never get that 45 minutes back. I did call Mom and talk to her while I was parked on I-35W. And my start-stop system activated every time I got to move 50 feet. I guess the previous 300 miles finally charged my battery up enough to start working again.
And what the heck is "Locomotive Breath" about other than the awesome flute riff about ?
@lynn – on my 2019 Highlander, there's a button on the lower left dashboard area (by the door) that disables the start-stop thing. Good for stop/go traffic.
>> I deff want a brad maker up here.
So…
a) @brad – kinda a long trip, even if he is a Maker
b) A wire nail making tool
c) Something to bake dough in that's misspelled
d) All of the above
A brad maker makes d'oh!
Population growth.
Just in time for Mayor Pete to issue the 55 MPH fatwa. It doesn't really matter whether the states go along immediately, but the new limit will be reflected in the MPG numbers for the next model year of cars.
We ventured into the North Austin Trader Joe's for the first time in three years today. Masks were not required but most of the customers wore them.
The upside of the masks is that you know the Robert Francis voters at a glance.
The Texas Supreme Court now has a backlog of mask cases. Enough people are still scared that decisions in the Governor’s favor could be ugly.
BTW, “Two Buck Chuck” is now $3.99/bottle, up from $2.99 before the pandemic, when we last bought a bottle.
Well, I'm home and fed.
Some drama. Septic backed up as I finished my shower. That means the leach field is fux'd. New system in my future.
Poked my finger with a screw yesterday, then did a bunch of wet stuff with the bandaid on. Throbbing, pus filled, and hurt enough to wake me several times this morning. I was going to just squeeze it, and apply abx cream, but we're grid up and I pay for obammacare but never use it. So my better half reminded me to stop at urgent care on the way home. Which I eventually did. Yup, infected. Shot of cipro in the left buttock. 2CC mixed with lidocaine, because that much fluid injected will HURT. (and it does. makes it hard to walk.) Tetnus in "whichever arm you don't need to use for a couple of days", so my left… yeah, that one hurts too. Dr wants me to start antibiotics tonight to double up with the shot, but all the stores are closed. The open ones are an hour round trip. But I'm a prepper so I'll get the Rx filled tomorrow, and still start tonight. Left finger, hurts and swollen. Left deltoid hurts and swollen, left buttock hurts and swollen. Jiminy Christmas.
I've eaten dinner though, so I am feeling better than an hour ago.
n
@Nick – I assume you've investigate various microbe-eating and/or enhancing products for your septic system? It's been a decade since I've had a house on a septic system, but there was a product that I added to the system once a year.
Like mentioned here: https://www.bio-sol.ca/blog/en/how-to-unclog-your-leach-field/ , similar info on other sites with a quick search. Perhaps a shock treatment might help.Might be worth trying before going to the expense of a new system.
And there are other things to do to keep the septic system ‘healthy’ – like not putting drain/toilet cleaners without checking to see if the product is ‘septic-safe’.
From Jan 31:
https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2022/01/31/stunning-poll-shows-how-many-want-to-impeach-biden-n515486
https://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/january_2022/50_support_biden_s_impeachment
That was before inflation took off (note to Michael Man: That's a real hockey stick, bubba).
And now the proglibturds are driving the opening of the southern border to a surge of a million unvetted foreign invaders.
Is someone surreptitiously collecting DNA from Mayorkas and the rest of the traitors to make sure that they can always be identified when we hunt them down?
The septic guy was pretty sure the pipes would be completely filled in with something bad, given the 1 foot of hard crust at the top of the tank, so I'm not sure how the enzymes would get into the pipes…
but I'm willing to give it a shot. The link was broken but it was easy enough to find what the site sells. Thanks.
There is also some sort of water jetting but I haven't looked at that yet. There are risks to the pipes with water jetting according to my wife.
We'll try to avoid a new system as they require pumping, permitting, and a lot of concrete cutting (in my case) to route pipes. The tanks would want to be where any future additional house would be best sited too, so I'd like to avoid that for that reason alone.
It seems that in the old days they put in a small tank and a lot of pipe so the wastewater would fill the pipes, and they would drain instead of filling a big tank system.
I much prefer the city deals with the sh!t. But that is country life, and self sufficiency.
n
Take care of that infection, Mr. Nick.
Yeah, simple little thing, I've run screws into my fingers before, didn't think anything of it. But it's definitely infected. Thankfully, we're grid up and antibiotics are still available and effective.
On the plus side, I'm now up to date on tetnus and good for 10 more years.
n
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/do-adults-really-need-tetanus-booster-shots-2020051219786
This study result is similar to one that I read years ago (1980's?) that looked at tetanus vaccinated WWII GI's and found, IIRC, that the incidence of tetanus in those who had never had a booster was ZERO.
https://www.cdc.gov/tetanus/about/index.html
Be interesting to take a closer look at the "adults who don’t stay up to date on their 10-year booster shots" group, but the data are probably a bit hinky due to the fallacy of human memory.
BTW, this is simply for the "interesting data about vaccines" file. No need to impute anything else.
I have fat fingers and big hands. If I hit the wrong emoji, do I have any means of changing it ?
Some drama. Septic backed up as I finished my shower. That means the leach field is fux'd. New system in my future.
If you want, you can come look at one or both of my aerobic systems at the office and house. The office system is more advanced since I can manually run the sprinklers.
@lynn – on my 2019 Highlander, there's a button on the lower left dashboard area (by the door) that disables the start-stop thing. Good for stop/go traffic.
Yup, my on off button for the stop start is in the middle dash. I was just surprised that the system starting working again after 300 miles of driving. The start stop system has not worked in 6 or 12 months. I thought I was going to have buy a new battery, which the wife vetoed.
BTW, I got 21 mpg coming up here, 475 miles. Pretty good for a brick, my 2019 f-150 4×4 with a four inch lift kit running 75 mph when I could.
I do know this, I have the 4 inch wide off road gas shocks, two on each corner. On smooth surfaces they are great. On roads that the trucks have worn grooves in, not great at all. After a while you get a surfing motion. And not a good motion, a seasickness motion.
I do not have knobbies. Just regular mud snow tires on 18 inch wheels. My buddy put 35s on his f-150 with a special knobby. Does not sing to you until 20k miles or so.
“Some have gotten the pasted content by creating a short comment, then going back and editing the comment and pasting it in. Which is a weird bug (or maybe a ‘feature’). I always Ctrl-A, Ctrl-C the comment before I submit.”
How do you do ctrl-a ctrl-c on Android phone ?
That is a limitation of the CKEditor4 that is being used. Doesn’t always play well with Andorid systems. Known issue. It’s why CKEditor5 was a big rewrite.
CKEditor5 will be used when I finish with the new theme. Did some work on it yesterday. Some minor tweaking of things. Was going to work on it today, but another project jumped into the priority line without asking.
As for the emoji icons – once you select one, it’s stuck there. No way to unselect. I also think you can’t add another one after the first. I think.
If you are interested in what Dr Pournelle's house looks like after the renovation by the buyer (bought in 2021) , check this link. https://www.redfin.com/CA/Studio-City/12051-Laurel-Terrace-Dr-91604/home/5241155 .
House sold in Sep 2021 for $1.75 million. Listed on 26 Feb 2022 for $3.495 million. Continency offer on 3 Mar 2022, final selling price reported on 18 Mar 2022 for $3.740 million.
Lots of upgrades, but probably a nice profit for the seller. The “street view” shows the exterior before renovations.