Cool and crisp. Warming later. Sun. Beautiful weather.
I didn’t get to the BOL on Saturday. Too many things to do, some of which went long, and some of which just popped up… Sold my forklift. Lost about $400, after having it for 3+ years. Like boats, unless it is earning you money, rent, don’t buy. Getting it started after a couple months sitting, after 3 years not moving, took a bit longer than I had budgeted, and the guy was an hour later than I hoped. Still, not only did he come by, he bought it. A Craigslist transaction that didn’t suck, yahoo!
But the delays started to pressure my schedule to do a pickup on the way to the lake. Heading home, I chanced upon a yard sale… and really scored. Not preps, but stuff for my workshop. 20 large, heavy duty, mostly made in USA C clamps for $50 was like STEALING. A live animal trap, some extension cords, hitch stuff, stapler and staples, and some long reach welding visegrips, brought the total to $100. Score. But, that ate some time too. When I finally looked at the google map, my drive time was one hour, not 45 minutes! And all my slack was gone. The straw the broke the dromedary’s hump was an ebay sale just as I was getting ready to leave. No way I could pack the sale, get my food and clothes together, and make the hard deadline for the pickup (two roll around AC units and some romex.) I just jumped in the truck and sped on my way. I made the pickup with less than a minute to spare. The guy was pulling through the gate to lock it and leave. He was not thrilled, but I was there before 6…
So today I’ll pack and head out at a more leisurely pace. There was stuff I could have done Sunday morning, but it will wait until Sunday afternoon, or during the week while the foundation guys work.
There is always more to be done. Like stacking, you just have to keep after it.
n
Re the Nordstream pipeline explosions – have a read what this pipeline expert has to say. I found it informative.
https://thelawdogfiles.com/2022/09/nordstream.html
Spoiler alert. He thinks the explosions are more likely due to poor maintenance than sabotage.
The weekend was eaten by weevils. Friday night I was doing some minor updates on a micro-server in the house. One that runs various small network services: openhab (home automation), owncloud, etc.. All of those running independently in containers. I figure it’s a good thing to update it once in a while, just in case there are any security patches.
Anyway, being tired, and apparently willing to follow whatever instructions appear on the screen: the update helpfully informs me that I could type “do-release-upgrade”. Stupidly, I do. For those who don’t recognize it, that’s a *major* update.
Of course, it gets stuck. Some time ago they decided to introduce “snaps” to Ubuntu (a completely different kind of software installation), the container software moved from the old way to the new way, and the upgrade process got confused. Not good: the upgrade hung, and all I could do was abort it. Of course, a half-upgraded server is just lots of fun. Just now, 1-1/2 days later, have I managed to get everything running again. There are still a couple of things that aren’t right. Oof. Any LXD experts out there?
“Think before typing”, that’s the motto. Or maybe: “don’t fiddle with servers while tired, on Friday evening”.
Wow, that was a really interesting read. Thanks!
Texas won at W. VA. Jimbo lost at Ole Miss. The drama got more interesting in the SEC.
Cue John Denver.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUmnTfsY3hI
For those of you playing the home game, Denver is a new square on the 2022 edition of the Greg Bingo card. Makes a great stocking stuffer.
I wear the troll scorn as a friggin badge of honor.
56 F in the wild side of Fort Bend County this morning with high clouds. Getting ready for church.
On yard sales, we went to one on Friday and I scored a really good deal. An APC Pro1000R UPS for $5, with a good battery. Got some other good deals at this sale and others, but the UPS is the one that really stood out.
/sniff
Hi all,
I thought I’d let all my friends here know that I preordered the Apple Watch Ultra. Gotta ensure my slot on Elysium alongside Steve Jobs’ head. Let the ovulating begin! Er, not for me, though.
/sniff
Didn’t they add BP too? I’d be interested to see how accurate that reads.
Things that make you say “Hmmm…”: We tried a new BP monitor out of concern that the Costco special we currently use was not reading accurately. When the new monitor from Big River wasn’t giving any different numbers and saw a $30 price drop in a week from our purchase date, we opted to use the return policy.
The response from Big River was that they would issue the refund and we should simply trash the item. $70, down from $100 when we bought a week earlier.
Yeah, if the monitor has a chronic problem, I could see not wanting to deal with disposal, but, still, $100. I guess Bezos got a credit from the manufacturer.
The tech isn’t there for BP with the Apple Watch. It can only receive BT BP from an enabled device. I think the only way to measure BP is to constrict flow, at this moment.
Welcome back Mr Atoz
n
added- I should make a joke about you ‘sniffing around’ or offer my butt as a dog for re-introductions…
n
Had a power failure here sometime in the late early morning… main pc was down. STILL can’t get the UPS sorted. Camera NVR was up though so that was the important one.
70F and 60%RH at 10 am is positively chilly.
n
added- although 4 of my older cams are live, the NVR isn’t displaying them. It is RECORDING them though. Weirdness.
n
Got some other electrical weirdness going on too. Dimmers that don’t dim, LED can lights all on the same circuit that all come to different brightnesses, or don’t come on…
And I’m going away for 2 weeks. Natch’.
n
@Nick: I’ve heard of similar behavior electrical weirdnesses after a lightning strike nearby.
My own electrical weirdness was discovering that the older battery jump starter/inverter/air compressor was hot and leaking fluids Saturday morning after plugging it in to charge Thursday night.
Yikes.
I havent used a UPS inside the house for many years now, after finding one red hot after smelling something weird one day.
Sounds like a visit to a house of ill-repute. Or is it just me? Oh, the memories, which none of you will hear about.
I have a UPS on our router, a switch, and the microserver I mentioned. Up to now, it has helped against a couple of power flickers – just a few seconds. Given the light load it supports, it ought to be good for hours.
I do wish you could turn off the stupid alarm. If the power goes out, it will beep incessantly. Short of cutting a trace, there doesn’t seem to be any way to turn that off.
well, something in the cut and paste from the FEMA brief breaks the comment editor. Blockquote is stripping out formatting when it used to preserve it.
Pasting INTO the blockquote locks the whole thing up.
What a pain. I hate when things change for no apparent reason.
n
but I can go into admin edit and make it work.
rick- not worth looking at unless you are REALLY bored. I emailed you the pdf
it will beep incessantly
–some of them have a mute button, one of mine does that I can’t remember off the top of my head.
n
I’m casually thinking about a timer for the water heater. The Intermatic WH40 looks good. Simple and mechanical.
$69 at Big River. $54 at Home Depot. I have to pay sales tax regardless.
I’m thinking Off at 9pm, perhaps 8pm. On at 5am, maybe 6am. The dishwasher takes about three days for a cycle but it seems to heat the water it uses and when I run it, it’s right after supper.
I don’t know if a timer is worth the money. With a working water softener I don’t know when the heater is on because it doesn’t make noise.
I guess the heater may cycle a couple of times at night to maintain. Is that using enough juice to make a timer worth an added a fail point?
That won’t matter on Sanibel. They will be rebuilt in a year. Money is only part of the reason.
Sadly, The Pecking Order might not be there. We’ve picked up food at that place.
https://www.indystar.com/story/weather/hurricane/2022/10/01/fort-myers-beach-sanibel-captiva-what-restaurants-survived-hurricane-ian-florida/8134972001/
Why the Indianapolis Star? Pence vacations on Sanibel.
When I didn’t see any mention of how The Island Cow fared, which was also located on Periwinkle and another favorite of our household, I hit the Googles and found this. Yeah, I sent money.
https://donorbox.org/helptheherd/
“some of them have a mute button”
I think my UPS units have a mute button. But by time I crawl under the desks and under the bed, I’m just turning them off until the a/c comes back.
When we had the Big Freeze a couple of winters ago, the UPS’ would not turn on. They use to on the same generator but the model has been “improved”. Voltmeter probes in an outlet show normal and steady voltage.
“In Accordance with the Prophecy”
https://areaocho.com/in-accordance-with-the-prophecy/
“Just yesterday, I was pointing out that Ukraine was applying for NATO membership, and predicted that the demented old coot in the Whitehouse was going to push us into a war with Russia. Seems that is EXACTLY what he is doing.”
Ukraine cannot be in NATO. Period. I am not even sure about Finland.
Putin has 24,000 nukes from 100 kton to 20 ??? megaton. He is crazy enough to use them.
I’m casually thinking about a timer for the water heater. The Intermatic WH40 looks good. Simple and mechanical.
$69 at Big River. $54 at Home Depot. I have to pay sales tax regardless.
I’m thinking Off at 9pm, perhaps 8pm. On at 5am, maybe 6am. The dishwasher takes about three days for a cycle but it seems to heat the water it uses and when I run it, it’s right after supper.
I don’t know if a timer is worth the money. With a working water softener I don’t know when the heater is on because it doesn’t make noise.
I guess the heater may cycle a couple of times at night to maintain. Is that using enough juice to make a timer worth an added a fail point?
Timers are a pain in the rump. You never know when you get a 2 to 6 hour power outage. Then you have to reset the timer. Or else go with the cold water. Ukrainians might like cold water but I sure don’t.
I sure do hope that we are pulling the special forces out of Ukraine. Russia moving nuclear bombers to the front is bad, very bad.
https://areaocho.com/ominous-signs/
You never know when you get a 2 to 6 hour power outage.
I’ll know. See above “chirping UPS”. 🙂
Paul, re the water heater timer, it sounds like your concern is wasted energy.
If that’s correct, is the electricity, which devolves to heat, actually wasted? If the water heater is inside the house and you need to heat the house, then it’s not wasted at all.
If the heat leaking from the water heater is going into the house and you need to run the air conditioner, then it may be worth worrying about.
@paul, look up the energy star rating for the water heater, see what the yearly cost is. Divide that by 5, and you are looking at saving maybe that 1/5th… Because if the water cools down, you will spend the money heating it at 8am, you won’t save ⅓.
Even an on demand isn’t sold as a money saver anymore, because people just use more hot water when it never runs out. A more efficient unit, a recirc pump (and loop) or an insulated blanket, might be a better return for the effort.
n
Ok, hitting the road.
n
Putin will not accept German missiles installed in Ukraine capable of delivering a payload, conventional or otherwise, to Moscow in less time than it would take to consider a sane reaction in the event of an “accidental” launch.
In retrospect, Putin probably wishes he had meddled in the US elections beyond the usual KGB/CIA “Spy vs. Spy” dirty tricks.
Finland and Russia have old grudges about borders which are hundreds of years old, but Russia learned about invading countries with infrastructure to support FedEx deliveries and Big Macs from McDonalds. Linus Torvalds is ethnic Finn as is Tatu Ylonen, one of the principals behind SSH IIRC. The country is even more 21st centry than Ukraine and could probably defend itself well, short of Putin using nuclear weapons. Finland doesn’t need to be in NATO.
My RV has a six gallon electric or gas water heater. I only use the electric mode as my camping sites have electricity. At night I turn off the water heater because the light on the switch is to bright. The next morning I still have hot water. The water has lost some heat, but still enough for use.
Based on that I suspect that my home heater would still have plenty of hot water for a shower after being off all night. The home heater is better insulated. Probably save $0.50 a month, $6.00 a year. The cost of a timer would probably be recovered in 10 years. In my opinion, not worth the money.
Another gadget being sold to the uninformed to make money.
My parents tried manually turning off/on the water heater in the early 80s when the power bill for our poorly insulated home 2500 sq. ft. home in Florida first hit above $100 – Oh, the horror!
Cycling the water heater didn’t make much of a difference in the electric bill, and I took a lot of cold showers in the morning for a few years.
Insulation and efficiency standards are even better now, 40 years on.
I’ve seen Tatu Ylonen speak at conferences. They guy casually invented the solution to IPSec VPN behind NAT as a side project to SSH, presented the idea at RSA in 2001, and then patented it to protect the concept from being trashed by Cisco and Microsoft. He is beyond brilliant, an anti-Gates.
Pearls Before Swine: Stolen Car
https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2022/10/02
Yes, the end times are always there for somebody.
I have a GE heater. Second one. It’s not very warm to the touch but then again, if my hands are cold….
The heater that came with the house was the original. Rolling it around (because it was heavy) sounded like a rock tumbler. I replaced it with a close-out from Furrows. A short and fat 60 gallon machine. Insulation of R-gazillion. That winter when the power went out for ten + days? Sure, I was heating the house with the wood stove and doing the brush teeth and washrag to the pits in the kitchen sink. Heck, I had to start sleeping on the sofa because the waterbed got cold. I had warm water for almost two weeks. The morning the water went cold was the day the power came back.
Anyway. The pipes go up from the heater and into the wall. Then down and under the house. That should take care of thermo-siphoning, I guess. I suppose a two story house would be different.
But yeah, if turning the heater off for eight hours a day is going to save the princely sum of 50¢ a month, why bother.
A better deal is to get a water softener. Sure, it is a pain the back side what with feeding it salt. But the faucets don’t lime up, the water heater doesn’t gurgle and hiss, the dishwasher looks brand new, and the shower and toilets stay clean.
I don’t miss using a single edge razor blade to scrape off the lime at the water line in the toilet bowls. Every month.
I am still fighting with the people who want to get an access easement across my nine acre commercial property for their landlocked property. There is already an access easement dating back to 1948. But, that easement is split 15 feet on my property and 15 feet on the property to the east of us. I have yet to find the original easement document but I found the 2004 document affirming it.
The original buyer has reputedly bowed out with threats of suing everyone in sight because my lawyer demanded the buyer pay me $20,000 for the improvements that I have made to the easement for us to start the negotiation. But the seller wants to get a new access agreement using the overreaching document from the title company. Things like I indemnify the “holder” and I allow the “holder” to use adjacent property to the easement over very overreaching. The seller has offered to accept the agreement with us marking out anything that we are not comfortable with.
I am about $3,000 into my lawyer and slowly burning. But, I do not want to end up in court spending $30,000 on my lawyer and losing anyway, being forced to sign the agreement by an uncaring judge. This is not right.
BTW, the seller finally figured out my cell phone number yesterday and called me. I should have said call my lawyer and hung up but I listened to him. He has quite the sob story how he bought out his sister and they have been desperately trying to get the property sold. I gather he is around 40 and quite possibly unemployed, been living off the family trust and selling parts of the 50,000 ??? acre ranch their grandfather left them. Apparently there quite a few grandkids living off the trust now.
Stick to letting the lawyer take the calls.
Isn’t Mr. Sob Story a lawyer?
Questions for RickH and any other solo developer.
But first, Hot Skillz!
I did technical programming, operating systems, Client/Server systems, data driven applications, and so forth for almost 30 years. Part of that was HTML/JavaScript/XML/PHP/Perl, back in the days when AJAX was brand new and you had to roll your own, and the browsers were weird. Then I did healthcare databases, some DBA work but mostly reporting, for about 13 years. Now I got sidetracked from a simple WordPress project for myself into Bootstrap, jQuery, and various applications. The tools have matured, and I’m rediscovering the fun of actually writing code instead of SQL. I’m actually having a blast! I missed actual programming.
Yes, I realize that calling WordPress and Bootstrap and PHP and JavaScript “Hot Skillz” is only showing my age, but chalk it up to my sardonic nature.
As a professional software developer, I feel like I’m naked out here with no version control software, and no repository. So I’m asking what tools all y’all use for that. I did a search, and all the cool kids are using Git, and they point and laugh at the people who use SVN, but the occasional balanced arguments seem to point out that there’s not really a big difference for a solo developer, and a tight team can sometimes do better with SVN, and Git merges can introduce a new level of chaos. Sometimes.
So what do you use, and in 25 words or less, why that and not the other?
My code-writing version control is basic – not extensive. If it exists at all.
I work on new versions or projects (there are many separate projects0. I write the code, inserting various ‘echo’ and ‘console.log’ statements so I can see what is happening. And lots of testing. I add/modify code, upload it to the site (usually a test site), and then test it to see what works. It usually doesn’t because of a “SPE” (Stupid Programmer Error), so I fix the problem and repeat.
I keep a separate ‘to-do’ list in a text file to help remind me of the new features/bug fixes I want to add/fix.
Once I get to a releaseable version, I update the readme/docs, then zip everything together. That distribution zip is hosted on the site (for the FormSpammerTrap site – which allows users to request the code), or uploaded to the WordPress repository (for WP themes and plugins). Each version is a separate zip file.
For the FormSpammerTrap site; I clone the current web site into a version-named folder, update all those pages so that the new features are documented, etc, then test all thenew pages and code request/download page. (Code is sent via a contact form, and the distribution zip file is emailed.) If all works OK, I copy the version files back to the site root, and do a final test.
Sometimes I will zip the current in-progress code into separate zip files, in case I have to recover from a major programming error – like when I bork a currently-working feature.
I keep all the project files on my laptop, backed up to an external USB drive. The development files are also on my hosting place, since that’s where I test things.
I have in the past used a local development environment (a PHP web server, MySql database, etc), but it was more trouble than it was worth. My code → upload → test →repeat process is what I have used for decades, and fast enough for what I do.
And since I am the only one doing the code for my projects, there is nobody else to get in the way. Or to blame (see “SPE” above).
(More than 25 words…sorry.)
Lynn, could you sell the land he wants for the easement, retaining an easement for your use. This would put the monkey on his back while reducing your taxes a little.
If your not on the local sewer system then when the buyer connects to the local sewer system you could also.
25 words or less? That’s really tough. Okay:
I have both Git and SVN set up on my home server.
My legacy projects, predating 2014, are SVN and I don’t want to mess with conversion which risks losing all of my version history notes.
Everything newer goes into Git because of easy branching, simple configuration of a local repository, and the capability to share/collaborate via GitHub when needed.
More than 25 words , but that about covers it for me.
If you go the Git route, download and read the book.
https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2
If you want to explore SVN more, the O’Reilly book is a must have. You will have to pick up more than a little sysadmin skills to run SVN properly.
@Lynn
“There is already an access easement dating back to 1948. But, that easement is split 15 feet on my property and 15 feet on the property to the east of us. I have yet to find the original easement document but I found the 2004 document affirming it. ”
If the original easement is still in effect, why is there any conversation beyond having your attorney write a letter to that effect and saying you have met your legal obligations and are not interested in further conversation? Have him attach your hourly consulting rate schedule and explain that calling you will get him a bill at your max rate plus attorneys fees.
>> Putin has 24,000 nukes from 100 kton to 20 ??? megaton. He is crazy enough to use them.
What’s a 100kton or two between friends?
Made it up here in good time. Got some stuff unloaded. Water level is even lower than it was. Let me pick up some trash…
Spent a couple hours talking with some neighbors. He’s a former gunsmith. The other was fishing for catfish. I’m learning some things.
Forgot my laptop power supply. Bluetooth keyboard and phone is an awkward combination for creating posts. The main WP page doesn’t scale well. Might be some short and sweet posts. Let’s just call them “pithy”.
It’s about 70F and 31%RH so a fire will feel nice tonight. Which is the next thing on my agenda.
n
Stick to letting the lawyer take the calls.
Isn’t Mr. Sob Story a lawyer?
The former buyer was a lawyer. I have no idea what the seller is.
Nick:
So order a replacement power supply, and leave it there. Then you won’t need to remember to bring it up and back home.
As a professional software developer, I feel like I’m naked out here with no version control software, and no repository. So I’m asking what tools all y’all use for that. I did a search, and all the cool kids are using Git, and they point and laugh at the people who use SVN, but the occasional balanced arguments seem to point out that there’s not really a big difference for a solo developer, and a tight team can sometimes do better with SVN, and Git merges can introduce a new level of chaos. Sometimes.
So what do you use, and in 25 words or less, why that and not the other?
We use an old copy of CVSNT on our PC LAN since 1993 or so on a dedicated Windows 10 x64 file server. Works well for our needs with almost a hundred directories and around 20,000 files under version control. I want to move to SVN someday when we grow up.
Before CVSNT, we used CVS on our RS/6000 AIX boxes from 1988 or so. Before that, we used directories and lost code all over the place when porting between our various 8 or 9 platforms that we supported.
@kenneth, that is a good idea! I will bring one next week. It’s an old toughbook, so PSUs are a little bit more expensive, if you want a real one. Most 12v or higher will work though. I should just move an extra lappy or small all in one up here. I’ve got spares. But you get in a groove and miss the trees for the forest…. and I guess I’m still thinking of temporary solutions.
Beautiful night. Down to 65F and pretty clear. Humidity is low but still pretty chilly on the dock. Fire felt great.
Radio was pretty open, although 40M was weak and very crowded. Even heard BBC World Service just below 10Mhz.
Watched two deer grazing and drinking at the boat ramp in the lot next to mine. Yummy deer…
But I let the fire die out and it got cold so I came in. Early start tomorrow, so I should get to bed…
n
>”I feel like I’m naked out here with no version control software, and no repository.”
I preferred Mercurial, but used GIT in my last job as it was the management’s preference. Other than having to learn yet another VCS, it worked fine for me. I didn’t get as comfortable with GIT, but I’m sure I could have if it had been a longer term gig. I wasn’t happy with SVN and did not find Subversion to my liking. Some co-workers at an earlier job did not get along well with distributed VCS, so decided to use Subversion instead. They couldn’t learn to lock files or deal with merging change conflicts in Mercurial. They were working on gate array code, so it didn’t affect me and I let them do what they wanted. I prefer the distributed VCS systems because it is easy to copy the repository, and to make scratch copies to mess around with things without disturbing mainline code.
@paul: A timer for something like a water heater won’t make much difference, since the water just has to be heated back up the next morning. If you think your water heater is using too much energy, you would be better served by either adding insulation, or else dropping the target temperature.
We only heat our water to 52C (125F), because it mainly goes to showers and hand dishes, and that’s plenty hot. The washing machine and the dishwasher heat their own water anyway. Another benefit: calcium apparently only starts falling out of solution if you heat to 60C (140F).
It’s a certainly that Ukraine cannot join while actively at war. The application for membership is just another way to keep Ukraine in the headlines.
Yup. I can attest to this, from our attempts at talking to the crazy neighbors.
Brief your lawyer on your wishes and priorities. Confirm in writing, to prevent any misunderstandings. Then just direct everything to your lawyer. Their problems are not your problems. Not having to deal with crazy sh!t is worth the cost.
I use Git as version control for everything. There are lots of platforms out their that will host a central repository for you. GitLab, GitHub, BitBucket, and others. GitLab is open-source, so you can host your own instance, if you want to.
The big difference between Git and older systems like SVN is that you have two levels of repositories: The central repository and a copy on each machine. This is very useful: You can use commits, see the project history, etc. – even if you are offline. You can make a series of commits that only you can see – until you are ready to share with the team.
SVN & Co. avoid merge conflicts by prohibiting two people from checking out the same file. Git doesn’t care, and you only have merge problems if two people change _the_same_lines_ in the same file. That shouldn’t happen anyway, if people know what they are supposed to be working on.
That was more than 25 words, sorry…
Another topic altogether: IOT devices calling home.
I just install pihole yesterday, and I’m looking at the overview this morning. Interestingly, zero queries have been blocked. My wife and I both use ad-blocking browsers (Vivaldi and Brave), and apparently they do a good job.
So what queries have been going out? The big two are Netgear (those must be coming from the Orbi WLAN) and Fronius (the manufacturer of the inverter for our solar installation). Lots of others as well, but those two seem to send out a DNS query once-per-minute.
So: what happens if I block IOT queries like this? Good thing to do, or bad idea?
@alan
“Jenny’s Enthusiasm” on eBay
-roaring with laughter-
thank you for a much needed bit of levity!