Cool and clear, warming later. Small chance of rain. No chance of snow. ‘cuz that would be cray-cray… It was nice most of yesterday, once it warmed a bit. Long pants and layered tops, but the jacket came off in the early morning.
Did my pickup. Did a drop off at my auctioneer. Got 5 or six bins of stuff out of the house. Got some stuff for the BOL. No not another freezer! 🙂 Prices are going up even in the secondary market. I’m losing bids for stuff I would have won last year.
Fortunately, there is very little that I actually need to meet my goals. I feel like the minimums are pretty well covered, and I’m just building out at this point. Not that I feel READY for whatever is coming, but I don’t feel doomed. Which probably just means I’m kidding myself or massively underestimating the bad thing. I am trying to not bid on stuff I’d like or that I want, just because it’s available. 7 or 8 auctions closed last night and I didn’t win anything. Didn’t even bid in most of them.
What I did win, I got for an accessory included with the antennas. That mesh network crypto mining thing I asked about last a week or more ago must really be busted, there are a bunch of antennas in several different auctions. I don’t need a bunch of 900mhz antennas, but the lightning arrestors might be handy. They are certainly cheap enough to just grab. And we will be having our local hamfest in March, so I have a place to easily sell them. The 900mhz antennas might even sell there, hams have allocations in the band. Easy to store some meter long sticks.
Today I’ve got to get out to my client’s house. I wasn’t able to connect remotely. I watched the video again, but don’t see what I missed so I’ll have to go through it step by step. Fortunately, now we have the bandwidth on site to watch the video while I’m at the rack, logged into the machine. That’s to get the VPN running. The port forwarding is straight forward. I just have to check my notes and do it.
Be open to opportunities outside your normal range. Look for alternatives to your normal purchases. Look for alternative ways to uses what might be available. And keep stacking what you know you will need.
nick
Musk should put Twitter in Dallas and avoid Austin. The talent pool here as well as the Federal Courts are California Lite.
238 sounds about right to keep the bytes flowing. Built properly, the app and the web interface should be amenable to outsourcing.
OTOH, Musk probably already knows about Austin and how many palms need to be greased to get anything done within the city and/or Travis County.
It didn’t take long for Greg Casar to attempt to make a name for himself by getting involved. Rafael Edward needs to put a magnifying glass on that putz now.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/tesla-gigafactory-workers-allege-wage-theft-dangerous-conditions/ar-AA149m4M
Qatar has decided – rather late – to ban alcoholic beer at the football games.
According to publicly available statistics, Qatar residents consume an estimated 1 liter of alcohol per person, per year. While that’s relatively low compared to Western countries, it is one of the higher values for the Middle East. Since we’re talking beer, that’s about 60-70 cans of beer per person per year, across the whole population. So the minority that does drink, are certainly does their share.
Of course, alcohol consumption in Middle East is seriously under-reported. Saudia Arabia, for example, claims zero alcohol consumption. However, if you are in Bahrain on a Thursday evening (when the Saudi weekend starts), the Saudis come over the bridge “en masse” to party. The consumption may be outside Saudia Arabia, but it is certainly Saudis doing the drinking.
I have no problem with alcohol – it’s the hypocrisy: The decision makers saying “let’s ban beer” for international guests, just before heading over to their private clubs and getting smashed.
Sitting in a lab just now, available to help students who need it. Out of boredom, I posted a pro-Musk comment on Ars Technica. For those unfamiliar, it’s a decent tech site, but the comments sections are totally dominated by progs. Who hate Musk for what he’s done to Twitter.
So I pointed out that the firings may just be some overdue housecleaning. The downvotes are pouring in at an impressive rate 🙂
Hey – I just checked – one upvote!
One of the surreal moments of my working life was sitting in an Irish pub, in Abu Dhabi, drinking a black and tan, while watching two Irish folk singers perform… as women covered from head to toe, with even their eyeglasses outside the covering, walk by the mirrored windows, just inches away.
—————————————
50F and some sun this morning. 62%RH, which is a nice change. Bus was only a little late this morning and within a minute or two of yesterday’s time. They are improving, half way thru the school year…
n
Fixed it for you. In my opinionated view most of the commentors are clueless dolts who rarely see sunshine and their only friend is their right hand and some lube.
It’s been YEARS since I visited ars.
n
School got a new scorer’s table for basketball. Big ol’ thing. 20 feet long in two sections. Lower sections are LED displays run by a computer that can display multiple things including pictures. Cost was $22,000.00 raised by donations. Impressive for a school. The display will be the most modern of any school in the area with the exception of a couple of private schools. Many of the planned displays will contain, or feature, my photographs.
Google doing evil. Who is surprised?
https://hotair.com/jazz-shaw/2022/11/18/massachusetts-sued-for-secretly-installing-tracking-apps-on-phones-n511965
If Musk gets away with it, the other tech execs are going to clean house as well.
This weather has to go. Walking the dog in 30 degree weather is nuts. At least there was no wind this morning. Yesterday morning there was a 10 mph breeze. The only thing that makes it tolerable is that we walk fast. Well, except for the stops for sniffing things. But that isn’t too extreme.
Only 55F atm, should have risen more than that by now.
n
Move to Buffalo, peasants.
Oh hell no! North Alabama is too cold for me.
Interesting pedigree with Sam Bankman-Fried.
Its a big club, and you ain’t in it.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ftx-founder-sam-bankman-frieds-family-boasts-deep-ties-democrat-power-players
The reason why Austin is so popular with the internet based companies is that five of the internet trunks went through Austin over 30 years ago. One could be on almost every trunk there.
Nothing says “building community” and anti-racism like sponsoring segregated events….
yep, not “precluded from attending” but encouraged not to, and none did…
n
You heard it hear, and now it comes true…
n
So we’re back to “someone did it”.
n
At some point I signed up for service alerts from FedEx. I find they provide some ‘ground truth’ to weather and news reports. They send one out when they stop service and when they resume.
n
These days, I believe it has a lot more to do with the “cultural” (read: drinking) opportunities than any technical reason to be here.
The talent pool is extremely shallow for real software development.
The legend here is that Steve Jobs despised Austin and the “culture”. The original campus on Parmer was inherited from Power Computing when Apple bought out that first and only Mac clone maker in the 90s. As long as he was alive, Apple kept their presence in town limited.
We went out to Chattanooga to take a look when we were in Tennessee in August. They’re supposed to be the “it” town these days for Internet connectivity in the US, but the place still gave off serious small town vibes. Not a lot of drinking focus — maybe that’s the problem.
What will Don Orange do all day if Twitter shuts down?
Am I cynical for reading that last statement as “The auction for who is to be determined NOT not to be blamed is now open. Opening bid is 10,000,000,000 euros. “
I see a couple of suicides or single vehicle accidents in the near future.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11441481/DailyMail-com-breaks-evidence-GOPs-case-against-Joe-Biden.html
n
Am I cynical for reading that last statement as “The auction for who is to be determined NOT not to be blamed is now open. Opening bid is 10,000,000,000 euros. “
Will you take rubles ?
oh my
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11444731/10-damning-revelations-FTX-bankruptcy-report-including-payments-signed-EMOJIS.html
crypto might not be compromised, but the people holding and facilitating it might be .
n
“JUST IN: Elon Musk Reinstates Twitter Accounts of Kathy Griffin, Jordan Peterson and Babylon Bee”
https://www.mediaite.com/tech/just-in-elon-musk-reinstates-twitter-accounts-of-kathy-griffin-jordan-peterson-and-babylon-bee/
Looks like Twitter is still up and running.
That’s why I never got into it, aside from trivial amounts I received as gifts or payments.
This has been a known problem for decades, when I started working in the field. A seemingly honest bank, broker, or middleman might simply be building trust until he has enough money under his control to make it worth stealing it all. The pre-digital solutions were having the banker physically in town where he could be lynched if he cheated, or having the government on hand to punish thieves. The former obviously won’t work and the latter is problematic because modern governments don’t want private, pseudonymous currencies or banking.
Some of the technical fundamentals, eg Bitcoin, are adequately secure in their own right, but the proportion of people who can access the network properly, properly save their coins locally, secure their local wallet properly, and keep secure backups off site is a small fraction of one percent of potential users. In practice, almost everyone keeps their coins in an online wallet, which means it’s vulnerable to theft by the operator or by government. Some fraction of the remainder, who try to keep their wealth on an encrypted hard drive, lose the key or have the drives seized, thereby losing whatever they had.
The technical issues have been or can be solved. The technical-social-psychological-legal issues may well be unsolvable.
The technical issues have been or can be solved. The technical-social-psychological-legal issues may well be unsolvable.
“This Is What Happens When You Give Your Life Savings to a “Vegan, Polyamorous Tech Bro””
https://www.clayandbuck.com/this-is-what-happens-when-you-give-your-life-savings-to-a-vegan-polyamorous-tech-bro/
“This story is just getting started. It will go down in history with Bernie Madoff and Enron as one of the biggest financial frauds in history.”
“Shameless Lawfare! Garland Appoints Special Counsel to Persecute Trump”
https://www.clayandbuck.com/shameless-lawfare-garland-appoints-special-counsel-for-trump/
“Democrats will stop at nothing to destroy anyone who gets in their way. This is a message not only to Trump but anyone else who dares to challenge their hold on power: They will destroy you financially, they will go after your friends and family and they will try to put you in jail.”
“Apparently the Biden regime’s plan is to “unify” the country by imprisoning the political opposition leader”
https://twitter.com/BuckSexton/status/1593695152777953281
“Buc-ee’s breaks ground on its largest service station in the country”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/buc-ee-s-breaks-ground-on-its-largest-service-station-in-the-country/ar-AA14h1vl
“A new 75,000-square-foot travel center is now under construction in Luling, which is just two hours west of Houston. The new location is will slightly larger than the Buc-ee’s in Crossville, Tennesse, which opened earlier this year. If you’re familiar with the Luling location, you know it’s one of the busier ones in the state. The new travel center will replace the current one along I-10 which was built in 2003.”
I am surprised that they just did not add another Bucees on the west bound side.
Move to Buffalo, peasants.
No freaking way. My father-in-law grew up outside Chenango Falls, NY at 4,500 feet elevation. He used to tell us stories about building a tunnel in the snow that they could easily walk through from the house to the barn. Starts snowing there in September and does not quit until May, if then.
The Buc-ee’s that is opening in Sevierville, TN is larger than one in Crossville. It will be the largest Buc-ee’s until the one in Luling is completed. The Buc-ee’s in Katy has one of the longest car washes in existence. Five minutes to get through the wash while enjoying the disco lights.
Well, the new Buc-ee’s need to be much larger to host hundreds of battery chargers for compliance to SloJoe’s and Newscum’s mandates.
>> (from yesterday) FBI and Air Force Raid Area 51 Researcher’s Homes
Hopefully no one here clicked on certain links in that article.
Bloodless self-inflicted gunshot wound suicides in Fort Marcy Park.
Okay, the parking lot of the Stone Turtle at the University of Deleware. Two birds … one stone … yada yada …
Luling Buc-ee’s is expanding? Good Lord, it was the first of the “super” Buc-ee’s IIRC.
We haven’t been to Luling for BBQ for a while, but we always hit Buc-ee’s afterwards when we go.
Many years ago some friends with 4WDs and I took a trip around Area 51, but we did not stop at any gate and were OK.
Bernie Ebbers.
And Theranos. 11 years in Federal Prison for “The Female Steve Jobs”.
I wonder what those black turtlenecks will look like with the orange suit.
Got bit hard with “=+” vs. “+=” today. One increments, the other simply assigns.
I hate that increment operator and generally don’t use it in my code, but I was cookbooking libcurl code and made an exception.
It onl.y took the better part of two days to find the issue. Doh!
Bitcoin is too much like placing bets on a masturbation contest.
Now, in all other contests the first coming in is the winner; however, in this one coming in last should be the winner.
Took D1 to pickup her eyeglasses, then we ate at a little storefront quick service restaurant. $42. one gyro, one cheeseburger with fries, 10 wings. two bottles of water. F me. When I was in college wings were 10c each.
n
yesterday’s bucket of KFC was $42 too, one chix sandwich, one bucket all dark meat, one small coleslaw.
the poor can’t eat fast food.
yesterday’s bucket of KFC was $42 too, one chix sandwich, one bucket all dark meat, one small coleslaw.
the poor can’t eat fast food.
Good night, you are expensive !
The poor go to McDonalds two or three times a day and eat from the dollar menu. I wish I was kidding.
The KFC cole slaw is excellent ! I love me the three piece meal with breast, wing, and drumstick with cole slaw and green beans. Used to be $5. It was $9 last time I got it, probably $11 now.
The wings were $15-20 of the bill, and I’m guessing the water bottles were $3 each.
Lunch out for work two weeks ago, just me, was $25 in The Domain, Austin’s imitation of a California city. The food wasn’t $25, but my co-workers picked it.
I spent most of this week working on a problem for a customer but I slid a few conversions in here and there. I have now converted 29,000 lines of F77 to C++. The character strings kill me so when they are few, I move fast.
I am still aiming for Christmas for completing the small data analysis program in my calculation engine. It is somewhere around 150,000 lines of F77 code. Tough to tell since it shares so much code with my big calculation engine which is around 600,000 lines of F77 code and 50,000 lines of C++. They share about 50,000 lines of F77 and C++ code.
A somewhat clear if convoluted history of the FTX debacle:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20BEJouWBgY
Enron for a new day.
the poor can’t eat fast food.
Google Maps tells me that there are four “In-n-Out” locations around Houston. The “Double-Double” combo is cheaper than the equivalent meals at Wendys or Burger King, but the REAL deal is the “3 by 3” sandwich for about $6.50. Adding fries and a drink drives the price up, but fries are high-carb and you can get a glass of water for free. I’m especially fond of the “protein style” burger; no bun, but wrapped in lettuce leaves. That’s a meal right there.
Fair warning: DO NOT try to eat it in the car. Go inside, and eat it hunched over the tray because it WILL drip sauce on your fingers. Delicious, but messy, and worth it.
I’ve pretty much killed my fast food urges. Used to indulge in the chicken sandwich/large fries, but I can put a chicken patty and as many fries as I want in the air fryer and serve it on a real plate, with a better bun and sriracha mayo//bbq/bleu cheese or whatever. With a beer if I’m so inclined.
I did eat a Jersey Mike’s sub this week. Underwhelming, especially at $10 for a regular.
I’ve pared my local restaurant list down to a couple: one Mexican casual owned by a family of Mexican descent, and one Thai casual whose owner closes for a month in winter to visit family in Thailand.
Still a big fan of Papa Murphy’s pizza.
The Salvation Army’s bell ringers are out. Best bang for the buck in general donations.
I was in Sam’s Club today:
Marie Callender’s Chicken Pot Pies (10oz box of 8) for $9.98 after $5 Instant Savings.
Got the green beans for casserole, forgot the crispy fried onions (-$1 Instant Savings).
Croissants and ciabatta bread and rotisseries chicken for sandwiches.
Hearts of Romaine. Core two heads, rinse the leaves, let them stand for a bit to drain the water, then into a plastic refrigerator container. I chop it as I need it, so the edges don’t have time to turn brown. The last of the real tomato is gone, alas–none ’til June.
Sorely tempted by pumpkin pie sample, but passed.
Dave’s Killer bread is cheaper at Costco, and I split the 2-loaf pack with a friend. Good sandwiches, great toast, and awesome French toast.
Gas was $3.13. Expect they will hammer it before the Thanksgiving travel.
I hate short days.
ADDED: I don’t buy beef in restaurants. Or at the grocery. I’m spoiled–I get a half every year. The round steak and half the chuck roasts go into the burger. I share with friends but reserve the good steaks for me.
–LOVE the double double. Got used to the fries. SO different from the seasoned frozen fries everyone else serves.
n
Is this what YOU think of when you hear the phrase “refugee camp”?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11441499/Gaza-fire-21-people-killed-massive-flames-burst-party-refugee-camp.html
n
Love the double double too, I usually go protein style, though I’ll go with a bun on the last day of vacation.
In Northeast TN, there is a regional fast food chain called Pal’s. Their burger is similar to In n Out’s. Not the same, but still very good.
>> Google doing evil. Who is surprised?
Uhh, here, should be no one…but I’m at ‘acceptance,’ rather than ‘fight’…is that a bad thing, sure, but life is short, and if I google hemorrhoids and see a Preparation-H ad in my gmail, so be it. Just one more on my “coulda, woulda, shoulda” list.
>> Its a big club, and you ain’t in it.
Any club that wants me as a member, I don’t wanna be in. Credit to Groucho or Yogi – too lazy to check 🙂
You can order the double-double protein style without spread and it doesn’t drip so much. Spread has carbs anyway.
I eat it in the car and usually don’t drip on myself. Much.
Haven’t tried the 3-by-3.
I need to try In-n-Out some day. Huh, there is one just 12 miles away from the house or office now, over in Stafford.
>> Am I cynical for reading that last statement as “The auction for who is to be determined NOT not to be blamed is now open. Opening bid is 10,000,000,000 euros. “
Will you take rubles ?
How about these shiny crypto coins??
>> The poor go to McDonalds two or three times a day and eat from the dollar menu. I wish I was kidding.
Is there anything left on the dollar menu beside coffee?