Cold and then slightly warmer. Sure to be damp too. Ah, Houston as we move into winter….
It never really got warm at the BOL, but the sun heated you right up if you were in it, and sheltered from the wind. Fishing from the shade – chilly. Fishing in the sun – shirtsleeves. (fixed and baited 3 or 4 poles with different styles of lure so I can easily try different strategies… so I had to test them, right?)
I did get a few things done, and one new (or extended) plumbing project started. It makes sense to do at least one of the hosebibs and convert to pex. I can get to it from the master bath, which has open walls anyway, so one more won’t make much difference. I found the stud cavity had a faint mildew/mold smell, so I pulled the insulation and sprayed everything. There is evidence of previous repairs to that pipe too. Turns out there was no insulation/caulk/sealant around the hose bib and pipe, so cold air would just come in through the hole in the brick and condense in the wall… or the cold water in the pipe would condense water out of the moist outdoor air… either way, there was too much moisture in that stud cavity. I’m sure the other hose bibs are similar. And fwiw, there isn’t a good retrofit pex hose bib, that I’ve found yet anyway.
I had a nice fire Saturday night. Shortwave had Radio Miami International airing some good music, but the ham bands were very crowded and it was hard to listen to anyone. The tabletop shortwave radio I’m currently using does a great job on shortwave, but SSB ham listening is a bit harder. The knob to adjust the beat frequency oscillator is small and the tiniest movements matter A LOT, but once you get it dialed in, you can just move up and down frequency with the push buttons. You’ll hear a lot of guys though, because the receiver doesn’t have a good narrow filter, and isn’t very discriminating. I do like two things about it – continuous tuning, and the volume on SSB. Unlike most smaller shortwave radios, you can start at 2.500 mhz and just spin the dial, all the way to 30.000 mhz. You don’t have to touch a band switch or skip from band to band, or service to service. The other thing is that most smaller radios lose half the volume when you tune ham bands upper or lower sideband. This radio keeps the level the same as when listening to AM. It’s pretty close to breaking the adage “if you want to listen to shortwave, get a shortwave radio, if you want to listen to hams, get a ham radio.” After all that, I can’t even give you a model number, but it’s an 80s or 90s Realistic from Radio Shack. I’ll update later if I can figure it out.
Get a decent (but inexpensive) older shortwave radio and a long piece of wire, and spend some nights spinning the dial. Like everything, there is a bit of learning curve, and you do need to practice at least a little. At a minimum it will give you some idea of band conditions and whether it’s worth firing up the ham rig.
Today I’ve got home and auction stuff to do. Lots of it if the weather stays clear. So I might be away from the keyboard later in the day.
If you can’t stack, watch some repair videos, or some butchering videos, or organize your downloaded prepper resouces, or sort your stacks. All that counts as stacking too. And it’s worth doing.
nick
*gotta love 80s movies, no “Long Duk Dong” in anything today.
When the Florida Legislature couldn’t produce redistrcting maps to satisfy DeSantis this Spring, the Governor’s office took over redistricting and carved out three additional districts where Republicans had the advantage … as well as eliminating Val Demings court-drawn “safe” seat she gave up to run for Senate.
Guess how many seats the Republicans picked up in the state on Tuesday.
Gedde Watanabe is still active, but the 80s movies appearances probably make him radioactive, despite a long run as a gay male nurse on “ER”.
Or maybe the nurse role is the typecasting problem.
I’m not a fan of most 80s Hughes flicks, but I have my own copy of “UHF”.
“Wheel of Fish”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KezvwARhBIc
That flick is beyond radioactive — Michael Richards in a significant role among other problems — but has quite a cult following thanks to endless runs on cable in the 80s.
Regarding using old lenses on new digital cameras. I always tell people to not even try. Older lenses had the light striking the film at an angle on the edges. OK for film as it was a flat surface. Digital sensors are buried (at the microscopic level) in a grid with a cell for each sensor. It is to avoid light contamination from an adjacent cell. This required new lens technology to have the light strike the sensor straight on.
Some older lenses might work, most don’t. Newer lens technology has really improved with computer technology and computer design. Most newer lenses are also lighter.
@Ray
nailed
thanks!
50F and overcast at the moment. Kids were late getting up, and the district rearranged the bus route to get it here earlier. So D2 missed the bus. My wife is driving her to school. Lots of surly attitude when I was trying to get them out of bed. SURE that they know better…. well, not so much.
Maricopa county (Phoenix) is engaging in vote counting shenannigans. People are looking at the results with higher granularity, and they are doing analysis.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/11/impossible-maricopa-officials-now-report-democrats-independents-voted-katie-hobbs-election-day/
n
Older lenses had the light striking the film at an angle on the edges. OK for film as it was a flat surface. Digital sensors are buried (at the microscopic level) in a grid with a cell for each sensor.
– thanks ray, that was something that should have been obvious to me, but that I never made the connection.
n
It looks like the author of the article has some lucrative government contracts, particularly with the US Veterans Administration, which is doing a lot of IT spending right now.
I don’t think the author is naive. He’s trying to maintain his spot at the feeding trough.
Re: new telescope.
Excellent! That’s a good all-a rounder scope from a reputable manufacturer.
Could be, but it’s an odd way to go about it. Looking at the software they offer, it’s all rather turgid stuff for government agencies. The business logic is going to be trivial – it’s all input masks, databases and reports: there is zero utility to doing anything with a functional language.
Maybe he just got bored, tried out a functional language for fun, and mistook “fun” for “generally great”? More likely, doing boring government software, he has a bunch of marginal programmers working for him, and dreams of magically making them into good programmers.
The last languages I played around with were Scala (pure functional) and Python a mess, despite being all trendy). It’s been a few years – maybe it’s time to look around for another new one to play with. Or go back to my all-time favorite: Prolog. A wonderful language, as long as you don’t need any I/O beyond the console.
The government agencies in the US, particularly at the Federal level, are generally clueless about the quality of the software they procure until delivery happens and the systems don’t work.
Obamacare is the poster child, but there are many others.
Tony needs a bigger plate…
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/nov/14/elon-musk-twitter-job-cuts-tesla-takeover
>> Obamacare is the poster child, but there are many others.
Start with medicare.gov. While researching Part D and Medigap plans recently, most of the information presented did not match the data on the providers’ sites. What a time suck.
Has anyone on this critically acclaimed board of exceptionally smart and talented people used WAGO wire connectors? If so, how was your experience using them? They are UL approved and seem to get decent reviews.
I can one-up that one by proposing VA.GOV.
Tony is doing a lot of hand waiving to distract from TSLA still sitting at 60 PE, despite losing half of its share value over the last year, and his inability to deliver the Jesus Truck at the promised $40k price point.
Buying the Twitter and turning it into a highly visible train wreck is all part of the show.
Not that it wasn’t a train wreck before, but no one is covering for the mess in the media anymore.
I’ve used WAGO but only for audio connections. They ship with replacement LED can lights…
n
Wago 221s are the bee’s knees. Wouldn’t do installation work without them.
https://www.wago.com/global/c/installation-terminal-blocks-and-connectors?text=*&sort=relevance&f=%3Afacet_product_Produkttyp_7845%3ASplicing%20connectors%3Afacet_product_Serie%3A221
They were supplied with the LED lights I put in the basement apartment. I now need to do the other side of the basement. No ceiling replacement, just get rid of the fluorescent lights. There are several wiring issues and I want to use WAGO rather than wire nuts.
Did not know they had that many different styles. I purchased a bulk pack of the 221 style, twos, threes, and fives, from Amazon. Should be here in about a week.
Any tricks or gotcha’s that I should know about using them? Seems straightforward, strip to proper length, insert, clamp, verify proper seating, have another drink.
WRT Digital vs. Film: I did an analysis based on contrast resolution of color film, basically line pair resolution of the old air force targets, and determined that a replacement for color film was a 20 Meg sensor. I think that was megapixels, but it might have been bytes, based on 24 bit color. Of course, there are a lot of factors that affect that including film speed, light, and lens speed and quality. YMMV, but I’d argue it at a cocktail party.
Having used Kodachrome 25 I would argue back. There was no discernible grain in the Kodachrome transparency, edges were sharp, no chromatic aberration. I have yet to see that in digital. Well, at least the stuff I have seen and used.
There may be some super-secret military stuff that would make my arguing futile and entirely wrong. There is probably a lot about digital in the hush-hush world that would make me blush.
After all, if CSI can read a license plate reflected off the hubcaps of a ’57 Desoto lit by a 40-watt bulb from with a B/W security camera, who knows what is possible.
I have no doubt the digital world will get there. There is some really high-end pro stuff, Hasselblad for example, that maybe passes the bar.
I saw the IEEE article praising functional programming (via Slashdot). Basically, the guy is saying that functional programming would solve all the world’s ills. Surprisingly, the guy isn’t that young, but he sure is naive.
I don’t even know what functional programming is and, I don’t care. I do regard myself as an above average programmer but with a specialty in engineering software.
Tony is doing a lot of hand waiving to distract from TSLA still sitting at 60 PE, despite losing half of its share value over the last year, and his inability to deliver the Jesus Truck at the promised $40k price point.
Ford is selling their Lightnings at an average price of $75+K (SWAG). That is a lot of room to fit the Cybertruck in.
Roger that, Me too!
Tony needs a bigger plate…
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/nov/14/elon-musk-twitter-job-cuts-tesla-takeover
All the Musk needs to do is find somebody to run Twitter for him. Somebody ruthless and can make mostly good decisions. Like Dr. No, etc.
“Texas regulators weigh $460M ‘performance credit mechanism’ to ensure electric grid reliability”
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/texas-regulators-weigh-460m-performance-credit-mechanism-to-ensure-elect/636459/
“Texas regulators are considering adopting a new market mechanism they say would help to ensure electric grid reliability by requiring utilities to purchase “performance credits” earned by generators based on their availability during hours of greatest risk to the system. The system aims to incentivize more generation to be available during times of high demand.”
Interesting. I wonder how they will keep the scammers from faking their paperwork ?
One of the things that I did at TXU when I worked for the Vice Presidents was that I verified our plant and our co-generators performance paperwork by plant visits when they were running their tests. Or, I ran the the tests and wrote up my own paperwork. Luckily for the plants, our numbers were always close.
“What happened in Mexico City this weekend…”
https://www.sovereignman.com/trends/what-happened-in-mexico-city-this-weekend-144288/
“I explained how the world has enjoyed decades of low inflation, geopolitical stability, abundant global trade, plentiful labor, and cheap energy. But now the world is shifting to an environment of higher inflation, geopolitical conflict, economic antagonism, fractured labor markets, and energy scarcity. The end result of these trends is most likely sustained, higher inflation. And central bankers are powerless to do anything about it.”
“Fortunately we’ve seen this movie before; the world has been in this position many, many times in the past. And as irritating as inflation may be, it also brings about a number of significant investment opportunities. We discussed a number of these over the weekend, and one of our featured speakers was the managing partner at a prominent New York investment firm specializing in natural resources. He gave an outstanding talk about energy, and how policymakers are doing everything wrong. He showed us the math, proving that ‘green’ energy sources like wind and solar are actually quite pitiful; they produce surprisingly high amounts of CO2, and they’re incredibly inefficient. The most compelling technology is nuclear; it’s clean, low-emission, and highly efficient.”
“‘A sobering assessment’: Large parts of US at risk of outages during extreme weather this winter: NERC”
“The Southeast and parts of Canada have joined areas facing elevated winter reliability risks, according to Fritz Hirst, NERC director of legislative and regulatory affairs.”
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/nerc-ercot-miso-iso-ne-winter-reliability-risks/636440/
Oh my. But what about all those fancy new solar power plants and windmills ?
Whenever they finally have Jesus Trucks to sell, Tesla will eventually copy the Ford tactic of upping the delivery date in return for the buyer agreeing to purchase at a higher trim level.
Ford isn’t delivering any $40,000 Jesus Trucks either, but their stock is in the teens with a PE of 6.
“Texas regulators weigh $460M ‘performance credit mechanism’ to ensure electric grid reliability”
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/texas-regulators-weigh-460m-performance-credit-mechanism-to-ensure-elect/636459/
“Texas regulators are considering adopting a new market mechanism they say would help to ensure electric grid reliability by requiring utilities to purchase “performance credits” earned by generators based on their availability during hours of greatest risk to the system. The system aims to incentivize more generation to be available during times of high demand.”
BTW, it looks like somebody in ERCOT has a clue. This is an implementation of my “if you can’t provide power during the bad times then you can’t provide power during the good times” philosophy.
Whenever they finally have Jesus Trucks to sell, Tesla will eventually copy the Ford tactic of upping the delivery date in return for the buyer agreeing to purchase at a higher trim level.
Ford isn’t delivering any $40,000 Jesus Trucks either, but their stock is in the teens with a PE of 6.
Sounds like Ford’s stock is a buy. Wait, I bought some last year.
“Amazon to lay off 10,000 workers as soon as this week: New York Times”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/amazon-to-lay-off-10000-workers-as-soon-a-this-week-report-165308894.html
“The layoffs will impact Amazon’s Alexa business, as well as the company’s retail and human resources divisions, according to The Times. Amazon’s Alexa group, which produces its Echo hardware and associated software, loses up to $5 billion a year, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing internal documents the paper reviewed.”
Now Amazon is laying off workers.
“‘This truck can’t do normal truck things’: YouTube auto star says towing with Ford’s new electric pickup is a ‘total disaster’ in viral video — but Wall Street still likes these 3 EV stocks”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/truck-t-normal-truck-things-143000359.html
“In a recent video, Hoover tried to tow an old 1930s Ford pickup with his brand new Ford F-150 Lightning. The test didn’t go well, as the new electric truck used up way more range than expected. “If a truck towing 3,500 pounds can’t even go 100 miles … that is ridiculously stupid. This truck can’t do normal truck things,” Hoover says.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nS0Fdayj8Y
I would still like to get a F-150 hybrid some day. But not a total electric unless I have a 1,000 mile battery or something like that.
The big no-no of functional programming is global variables.
Object oriented development, for instance, has lots of globals, but scope is restricted.
“Appeals Court Blocks Biden’s Student-Loan Forgiveness Program”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/appeals-court-blocks-bidens-student-debt-forgiveness-program-11668451499
“Ruling adds a second major roadblock to White House efforts to cancel student debt for millions of borrowers”
“A federal appeals court on Monday blocked the Biden administration from moving ahead with its mass student-debt cancellation program, dealing another blow to the administration’s plan after it was ruled unlawful by a federal judge in Texas last week.”
Hat tip to:
https://www.drudgereport.com/
Cool.
Amazon is top heavy in HR. I get 2-3 emails a week from recruiters trying to solicit me for some job based here in Austin, but all they really want to do is get me to notch their “talked to 50 something white guy” box.
My rule for the last few years has been one evening of HackerRank (Amazon’s favorite screening tool) every 6-12 months. I view it as veiled age discrimination, but I like the occasional diversion other than Star Craft or Harpoon.
Yesterday’s diversion was that I ran half of “Road House” with the Kevin Smith commentary. A lot of it is interesting industry trivia, but Smith totally missed Kevin Tighe’s (bar owner) most important credit.
“Emergency” must be radioactive these days. The 50th anniversary got observed with a special at 6PM on a Saturday by Cozi a few months ago, and I know the LA County Fire Museum did an event, but that was pretty much it.
“FTX Facing Criminal Probe By Bahamas Authorities, But Musk Counters There Will Be “No Investigation” Of “Major Democrat Donor” SBF”
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/sbf-questioned-bahamas-police-elon-counters-there-will-be-no-investigation-major-democrat
Looks like the cost of getting out of USA legal reach is $39M. I wonder what it will cost to get out of Bahamas legal reach ?
I am shocked, shocked I tell you !
Hmm…looks like IDEAL now has the lever-type too. Haven’t tried them. I do use IDEAL Wire Nuts though.
https://www.idealind.com/us/en/shop/catalog/product/view/id/37453/s/in-surer-lever-wire-connector-2-port/category/733/
“First Time Hearing “Righteous Brothers” – Unchained Melody” by the Cartier Family:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4zwm2gSnaA
Warning, warning, Warning, incredible time sink ! These 20+ year old “brothers” review a bunch of older videos from music to sports. Their reactions are vocal, hilarious, and fairly on the edge.
The wife found this youtube channel yesterday. I must have watched twenty of their reactions. The Larry Bird reaction was great.
And then watch “Righteous Brothers – You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling Righteous (REACTION)”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4uOiO5k8QQ
I40 in TX is lined with windmills:
Overheard at a truck stop along I 40:
“Wow! It must take a LOT of electricity to run those windmills!”
😛
Drive I69 from Corpus Cristi down to Brownsville.
Lots of windmills.
iirc knuckle dragging, cis-male, mis-gendering, he-man, oil glutton TEXAS generates the most electricity from wind of anyone in the nation. Suck it greenies.
n
(I think wind blows, but if we’re gonna do it, do it in a way that puts a thumb in their eye.)
“Hold off on big purchases like TVs, Jeff Bezos warns”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news/hold-off-on-big-purchases-like-tvs-jeff-bezos-warns/ar-AA146nLD
“Amazon founder Jeff Bezos recently warned consumers and businesses they should consider postponing large purchases in the coming months as the global economy contends with a downturn and faces a possible recession.”
“Last month, Bezos tweeted a warning to his followers on Twitter, recommending that they “batten down the hatches.” The advice was meant for business owners and consumers alike, Bezos said in the interview.”
Yup, the oil patch is in the ditch already.
https://compactmag.com/article/the-email-caste-s-last-stand
What if “Learn to code” isn’t an option?
How about “Learn to drive a truck”?
https://compactmag.com/article/the-email-caste-s-last-stand
What if “Learn to code” isn’t an option?
How about “Learn to drive a truck”?
One of my friends got laid off as an accountant when he was 60 in 2009. He tried to find another job but could not due to the recession. So he got a commercial drivers license (a CDL) and was the third driver on a Kenworth running from Los Angeles, CA to Jacksonville, FL and back each week on I-10. The truck never stopped moving except to load and unload. He did that job for a few years and then retired when he turned 67. His wife hated the job with a passion but it paid the bills.
Checking the logs on my website as a time sink.
I was a little bit shocked at the number of bots that try different combinations of URLs on the site. Looking for something, I guess. And why is GitHub trying gain access to my website? Even WordPress? All the common (I guess) directories are tried “New”, “new”, “Old”, “old”, “OLD”, etc. are being attempted.
None of my pages have common names, would probably never be guessed except by people that know me. Even those directories are taken down after a week.
I do have a “robots.txt” file which apparently gets ignored by everyone including Google which hammered my site with 500 requests. More than a little annoying.
Of course, it is not my server and is at a hosting service, probably on some shared server with several dozen other sites.
Trucks don’t make money stopped.
When some computer equipment was delivered to my workplace in Oak Ridge it was delivered on a truck driven by a husband-and-wife pair. I asked them why they operated a truck.
The couple said the trucking company paid 100% of their training in return for a one-year commitment. They basically lived in the truck as it had a large sleeper area. Every three nights they got a hotel paid for by the trucking company. Their plan was to drive for five or six years then quit. They both got paid good money for driving and had no real housing expenses. Their only real expense was food, clothing and their share of health insurance (which was not much).
They said at the end of six years they expected to have about a three quarter of a million dollars in the bank. They would buy a house with cash, a couple of vehicles with cash, then both go back to their real occupation of being teachers. They would be 100% debt free and have $300K in savings.
The trucking company really liked their driving as they could operate the truck for 22 hours a day for three days. Then stop for 24 hours at the hotel.
A coworker from my time in Oak Ridge got laid off the same time I did. I found a job after some considerable struggle. He did not. He got a CDL and drove for Star trucking. He was a codriver. He hated the truck as the other driver was a slob and kept the truck filthy. He drove for about six months before being fired. He had a couple of small accidents. Backed into a truck at rest area and did minor damage. Another time he clipped a pole and damaged the trailer. When he got back to the main terminal in Nashville he was given a bus ticket back to Knoxville.
For some it doesn’t work out well.
>> All the Musk needs to do is find somebody to run Twitter for him. Somebody ruthless and can make mostly good decisions. Like Dr. No, etc.
Someone “volunteered.” Probably not the ideal qualifications. Tony’s response was short and sweet.
>> “The layoffs will impact Amazon’s Alexa business, as well as the company’s retail and human resources divisions, according to The Times. Amazon’s Alexa group, which produces its Echo hardware and associated software, loses up to $5 billion a year, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing internal documents the paper reviewed.”
Alexa doesn’t generate all that much revenue, especially without ads.. Occasionally if I ask about a product that “she” recognizes it asks if I want to add it to my cart.
Not sure why it loses that much money…just takes a few people working eight hour shifts sitting at computers typing all the requests into Google, right??
Scrum Master.
If they notch a box for “underrepresented” groups in tech, they’re still going to find jobs … for now.
My friend’s son, a white boy, graduated UF with a Masters in “Digital Art” this year. He’s still unemployed.
To be fair, Oracle called him for an interview doing support a few months back, but instead of recognizing the opportunity, the kid decided to keep looking.
UF was at college night a couple of months ago, and while waiting to talk about the viability of the FL Prepaid plans we funded for both of our kids, I overheard the rep talking up the “Digital Art” program to some parents. I didn’t laugh.
>> “In a recent video, Hoover tried to tow an old 1930s Ford pickup with his brand new Ford F-150 Lightning. The test didn’t go well, as the new electric truck used up way more range than expected. “If a truck towing 3,500 pounds can’t even go 100 miles … that is ridiculously stupid. This truck can’t do normal truck things,” Hoover says.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nS0Fdayj8Y
Is the core market for the Lightning and Tony’s Jesus truck really the high-end audience that’s referred to as ‘Cowboy Cadillac’ drivers? Not much more than a few bags from Whole Paycheck ever in the bed. And certainly no towing.
>> All the Musk needs to do is find somebody to run Twitter for him. Somebody ruthless and can make mostly good decisions. Like Dr. No, etc.
Someone “volunteered.” Probably not the ideal qualifications. Tony’s response was short and sweet.
I can just about guarantee you that many other interested parties are going through back channels. Of course, Jack Dorsey is hanging around.
Is the core market for the Lightning and Tony’s Jesus truck really the high-end audience that’s referred to as ‘Cowboy Cadillac’ drivers? Not much more than a few bags from Whole Paycheck ever in the bed. And certainly no towing.
Hey, I have towed trailers about a half dozen times with my Cowboy Cadillac !
And yes, most people buying the Lightning right now are doing it for the show factor. They get it washed every week and detailed once a month. Me, I drive through Buccee’s car wash every month or two. And I am going the Windex the windows before 2022 is over.
>> The big no-no of functional programming is global variables.
And immutable variables – sounds like fun:
Assuming that your middle school taught Lambda Calculus.
>> I would still like to get a F-150 hybrid some day. But not a total electric unless I have a 1,000 mile battery or something like that.
Tony still predicts (ha?) a 500 mile range for the Jesus truck. If you live along the west / east / south coasts you can probably drive without much range anxiety given Supercharger availability. Currently, the largest charging station in the US is a 70-space Tesla Supercharger hub at The Outlets at Tejon, an open-air retail center in the San Joaquin Valley in central California. China has the world’s largest electric car charging station; located in the city of Shenzhen, it has a reported 637 spots.
In fact, he wants all the other EV manufacturers to adopt the (currently) proprietary Tesla fast charge plug as the new standard (instead of CCS2).
Texas will be covered too. I don’t think it is a coincidence that The Geico Gecko is proposing a solution to Texas energy problems in the form of “standby” power plants at the same time he is consolidating control of Flying J/Pilot onto the Berkshire balance sheet.
This Spring’s session of the Texas Legislature will be interesting. Payback for keeping the lights on this Summer will be extracted in some way.
There has to be at least a little bit of plausibility to your lies….
– one of, if not THE most hated pols in Houston. No way she won.
n
Wow, it is only November and I am testing the electric heating systems in the office building. Of course, it is suppose to be 41 F in the morning.
https://www.wunderground.com/forecast/us/tx/richmond?cm_ven=localwx_10day
Driving a truck won’t be an option for a while… the economy is collapsing.
n
“‘He’s Fired’: Elon Musk Unceremoniously Axes Twitter Employee Who Publicly Called Him Out”
https://www.mediaite.com/online/hes-fired-elon-musk-unceremoniously-axes-twitter-employee-who-publicly-called-him-out/
Don’t be an entitled wannabe.
The guy who makes his money selling stuff is telling people to stop buying stuff…
n
The guy who makes his money selling stuff is telling people to stop buying stuff…
In other words, Bezos sees us heading into the Great Depression that my son and Lionel Shriver have been predicting.
https://www.amazon.com/Mandibles-Family-2029-2047-Lionel-Shriver/dp/006232828X?tag=ttgnet-20/
And according to Buffett, the tide is going out.
From “Best in Class” to “Sucks in a Class of It’s Own”
@Nick
“Driving a truck won’t be an option for a while… the economy is collapsing.”
Driving a truck and delivering packages is constrained by a lack of drivers. I talked to an executive in a company today that sub-contracts for one of the Big 3 and he was whining about not being able to get drivers.
ADDED: fixed last sentence
Bezos: “He advises consumers and businesses to delay purchases and stockpile cash.”
Shiite-for-brains who spent most of his life screwing costs down and driving manufacturing to China so he could skim profits off cheap shiite that doesn’t perform is being led around by the pecker, announcing that he and his girlfriend will be giving away most of his money.
That’s what ASTM committees are for. At least it used to be until the trial lawyers decided that they could make more money if there weren’t any standards.
Driving a truck and delivering packages is constrained by a lack of drivers.
True today, but not necessarily next week or next month. Fedex Freight is all LTL or palletized freight, not the guys in short pants running up to your door… if they are cutting drivers and trucks it’s in the OTR freight space, not the ‘last mile’ package delivery space (although they do that too.) They were formerly known as American Freightways, iirc.
We were worried there weren’t enough drivers to meet demand, but demand has slowed dramatically, and now there are too many drivers. There are other articles predicting the same thing, a slowdown in shipping freight, that I don’t have in front of me. Fedex Freight is not the only trucking company that is seeing a slowdown coming.
n
Dissecting a Wind Project: An Introduction to Bad Economics (and political correctness)
By Bill Schneider
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/11/14/dissecting-a-wind-project-an-introduction-to-bad-economics-and-political-correctness/
The project described was in New Zealand, which has some unique conditions, but the analysis is instructive and the conclusions are universal. Highly recommended.
@Nick
“True today, but not necessarily next week or next month.”
True, I think, through Christmas.
It is more efficient to haul freight on a railroad than it is on a truck, then more efficient to haul freight “the last mile” on multiple trucks to a distribution center, aka “retail store” where “customers” come to pick it up, than it is to run multiple levels of truck, the final level being to the end of the driveway where the
“customer”“lazy sod” resides.All of which is being refined in the furnace of $5… $10… $15 a gallon diesel.
In the meantime, drivers are needed for trucks, school buses, and sundry other tasks. Work to eat is a thing, even if it only kicks the can down the road a few months. Admittedly a new old thing for a lot of would-be travelers on forgiven student load cash.
But as Ace pointed out earlier today:
An observation about shipping:
How is it that Amazon finds it efficient to throw a toothbrush in a half-bushel box and throw it on a truck with similar small item/large box combinations, but when you go up to the counter at USPS or UPS or Fedex the first thing they do is pull out the tape and calculated dimensional price?
Could it be that “dimensional” pricing was not implemented to apportion costs efficiently, as we were told, but simply as another way to turn the screws on the consumer?
>> FedEx Freight, the less-than-truckload arm of FedEx Corp. and the nation’s largest LTL carrier, said Saturday it will furlough an undetermined number of drivers starting in early December.
I think (just my $0.02, no hard data yet) that some of this is earlier than usual holiday shopping. My in-box has been inundated for weeks already with ‘early’ Black Friday deals, and some that I’ve checked are good deals. Picked up an LG 55 inch 4K TV for $325 and an HP laptop for $399 ($200 off).
>> How is it that Amazon finds it efficient to throw a toothbrush in a half-bushel box and throw it on a truck with similar small item/large box combinations, but when you go up to the counter at USPS or UPS or Fedex the first thing they do is pull out the tape and calculated dimensional price?
From what I understand, Jeff’s box selecting AI uses HPFM and the toothbrush in the giant box is either smart enough to look ahead and realize they have too many big boxes or it’s been programmed by a monkey with sense of humor.*
*Disclaimer: no actual monkeys work at Amazon…we think.
ADDED: also since most Amazon packages never leave the Zon logistics stream, perhaps dimensional size matters less to them?
>> In the meantime, drivers are needed for trucks, school buses, and sundry other tasks.
School bus drivers…definitely in @nick’s neighborhood.
wrt bus drivers, we’re on our 4th in the last 4 days. Triple whammy. Clean driving record, clean criminal record, clean piss test. Add the ordinary pay (not super high, but competitive) and working with kids, and you get a lack of available talent. Our district USED to offer the same benefits to drivers as teachers and staff. It was a way to get priority placement for your kids, same as part time cafeteria work. The applicants dropped off when they got rid of that perk.
45F and overcast with gusting variable wind. Some patches of blue sky in the distance, so it could blow thru.
Forgot to mention that I spent part of yesterday breaking down and vac packing the pork loins. Cut one roast off each, sliced the rest as chops (thin, medium, and thick) with the fat end reserved for pulled pork. Then I cooked one of the roasts for dinner. Made fried potato and onion as a side. Yum. Only a couple of slices of pork left over.
n
*Disclaimer: no actual monkeys work at Amazon…we think.
–DUDE! My auctioneer yesterday had someone visiting in her office who literally had a monkey on their shoulder. Tiny little thing, in a jumpsuit. I did not think I’d see a monkey yesterday.
n
You have kids, don’t you? Other than the tail and fur, I challenge you to find a significant difference between a monkey and a child.
(For bonus points, find a significant difference between a monkey and a so-called human of any age.)
Monkey is less surly than 13yo…
n