Cold and damp here at the BOL. Should still be clear, but I gotta wonder if the lake is big enough to get ‘lake effect’ snow. It was 36F when I went to bed. That is pretty cold for Texas.
Yesterday turned into a gorgeous day as I got out of town. Don’t know if it was the shift in location, or a shift in the weather, but the sun came out and it was comfortable in shirtsleeves.
I loaded up the truck and headed out.
Did my pickup, way out in the country outside of Conroe.
Guy had a thing for circuses. There was an honest-to-Crom circus carousel set up in his man cave building. They’ve been having estate sales since spring, every week or two, to clear out and it looks like they just started. Figures, collectibles, circus stuff- the place was overflowing. Garden scale railroad… never built that I could see, and it’s been selling cheap because it was all circus themed. Man cave was only about 70% complete. Guy had time to collect all the stuff, but ran out of time before he could get it set up to show it off.
There is a lesson in there somewhere.
Prepping is a bit like that. Only you hope that you never get to ‘show it off’, especially the really serious preps. No one wants their home security upgrades tested, or their resolve and shot placement if someone breaks in. No one wants to be eating freeze dried food for a year while their “doomsday garden seed package” grows.
What we do want, is the satisfaction of turning potential big problems into small problems. We like saving the day by pulling a prep off the shelf and using it. Making a quick dinner when you’re tired and hungry from stored food, grabbing up a once in a lifetime bargain because you have the funds saved, even just saving the third trip to the big box store while working around the house, because you picked up 2 of something last time you were there, instead of just one- those everyday moments when prepping or planning or foresight pay off are satisfying in and of themselves.
You don’t need the zombie apocalypse to show the value of your preps, and you hope you never get there. I hope old boy didn’t hate that his room wasn’t done when he rode his carousel. I hope he felt joy when he saw the posters on the wall, or the trains on the shelf, or the joy on his grandkids’ faces when they rode.
Take joy and satisfaction in the process. The journey is as important as the destination.
Stack the things.
nick
*post title is from an 80s pop song, recruiting someone to join the singer’s [ criminal ] enterprise.
It is 35 F out there with frost on the grass and the roof. The grass is crunchy and was wet when I took the dog and cat out. I will be weatherproofing the office complex this afternoon for the hard freeze 18 F predicted for Thursday night.
Folks, it is just December. Winter has barely gotten started and we are having a hard freeze in South Texas.
I am not sure that I mentioned getting my home inspected by the foundation guy. I am getting 17 piers on March 13, 2023 for the entire front of the house. The cost is $8,500, $500 per pier. They are really busy since our really dry summer.
Everything in front of the first post tension cable has sagged 1.5 inches since I bought the new used house 3 years ago. So he is going to bring it back up. Then I will get the broken sheetrock fixed.
We get lake effect tropical storms, Allison and Harvey, from the Gulf of Mexico. Gotta be a huge body of water to get lake effect.
There seem to be a lot of “Show Ya” types involved in prepping who want something to happen to justify their actions, going back to the runup to Y2k.
I’ve noticed some of the “show ya”, too. I think that some of it comes from wanting reassurance that they didn’t waste their time and money, so they wheel out the generator whenever the power flickers. I’m sure that some of it is “told you so”ism. Maybe some of it’s “you ain’t got no ice cream” though I haven’t seen it myself.
I’m perfectly happy to let my piles of stuff just sit where they are, other than rotating food and batteries and such, first in-first out. Almost everything I bought is dual use, so to speak, so the worst that’ll happen is some of the food will need to be composted because we didn’t eat it soon enough. If we never need to live off of the stored food, I’ll be delighted. (A little surprised, too, to be honest, but mostly delighted.)
Engage gaslighting:
Merry Christmas! Free Covid home tests for everyone
Say wut now? Ya thinks goobermint lockdowns and mask mandates had anything to do with that? Who knew “people of color” had weak immune systems. Sounds raaaayccccissss!
The Feds have lots of jabs and those tests need to go somewhere.
Every test I’ve used has been the same Hecho en China kit inside the box, regardless of brand, right down to the Engrish instructions and certificate signifying that the test is only to be used under Emergency Use Authorization, shielding the manufacturer from liability.
Just like the jabs.
Watch Florida this Spring. Now that DeSantis has brought Disney to heel, he seems to be planning to go after Pfizer and Moderna. Even if it is just politics for 2024, some interesting information about the approval process is bound to come out.
It is more “I Told You So” than “You Ain’t Got No Ice Cream”. The latter requires a certain impoliteness in the culture to develop properly, and Americans at least try to be polite for the most part, something the rest of the world, including my in-laws, view as a weakness to exploit.
The savings on that alone will bankroll a lot of other stuff.
I was one of the few that stated that Y2K was not going to be a big deal. Even though I made a lot of money on the side working problems.
The most difficult thing to get across to people were those that stated their car may no longer start because of the date problem. Deep panic for some because the car used a computer.
I would then ask these people when was the last time they set the date in their car. I would get a puzzled look. I would explain the car computer was a process control, cared nothing about the date.
I was generally chastised by others that I knew nothing about computers. Anything that used a computer was going to fail on 01/01/2000. I best be prepared.
Turns out I was correct. Y2K was a non-event.
50-60 years ago I learned to use the Motor manuals when attempting an unfamiliar auto repair. I’m sure I still have a couple packed away somewhere, but they are on my “dispose of immediately” list when they pop up.
Nowadays it’s YouTube. If you can find a couple videos of the repair you need to do, that’s generally about 10-100 times more effective. Case in point: replacing the blend door on just about any a/c system. If there’s any car where that is easy I’d like to know, but if I ever get a corporate Ford exec or engineer trapped in the window seat on a long flight, the blow-by-blow and post-failure quality evaluation of the replacement of one of their blend doors is going to feature in my multi-hour endeavor to promote their slide into alcoholism.
One of the channels that YouTube’s suggestion algorithm pointed me to was Wranglestar. The first video, IIRC, was one of his Forest Service equipment repairs, but I think this was the one that got him a place on my bookmark list:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZ_uS4GUHGQ
And BTW, if you haven’t heard the story of Casper, the Great Pyrenees that killed 8 of the 11 coyotes that tried to attack his sheep, it’s worth the time:
https://www.reddit.com/r/greatpyrenees/comments/zapysa/casper_the_great_pyrenees_takes_on_11_coyotes/
ADDED: Yeah, the other side of “why you should carry”.
@Ray Thompson
I seriously contemplated brushing up my COBOL and setting out a consulting shingle cleaning up legacy code. The reason I did not was that there was no corporate foresight (is there ever?) and it was likely that the sweet spot was only going to be 6-12 months and I wouldn’t be able to pack my retirement without a lot of 20-hour days.
In retrospect…
46F and beautifully sunny day. If I’m reading my outdoor weather system correctly, it got down to 30F last night. That’s right chilly. And Lynn’s observation is timely- it’s only Dec here in Texas…. and Germany for that matter, which is currently burning reserves at a prodigious rate due to “un-usually cold” weather.
Time to trap some more of that green house gas.
@ Ray, don’t gaslight yourself. A lot of potential problems were avoided because of the massive effort wrt Y2K issues. And there were issues, not life threatening, but real for the people who couldn’t get valid ID, or who’s gov checks were delayed. Today’s cars DO set the date, although having it wrong might not be critical. There was a lot of overblown fearmongering before Y2K but there could have been real problems too.
My concern about Y2K was terrorism. Wasn’t it funny that NOT ONE terrorist group managed to capitalize on the intense media coverage of Y2K? We know they tried- several bombers were stopped. I think the guys in Blackhawks were working overtime leading up to the day… or it could be that the threat was massively exaggerated. (although we nabbed them trying, and they have succeeded with attacks, so we know there IS a threat.) An awful lot of rice bowls depend on that threat being huge.
I better get some work done.
Take some time to smell the roses while you’re working on the garden.
n
@drwilliams, I quit watching wranglestar a couple of years (3? 4?) ago due to his sometimes glib and gratuitous reviews. Something about him always rubbed me wrong. Is it time to take another look?
Or is he still doing ‘glamping for posers’ gear?
n
With Y2k, it wasn’t that the infrastructure was threatened as much as the billing systems. For all of the hooplah, Win95 was the first time many home and small business PC users had a TCP/IP stack, and things just weren’t that automated five years in.
Y2038 will be a bigger deal with more automation happening in the last 20 years and many legacy 16/32 bit systems still hanging around on the principle of “If it ain’t broke”.
I don’t want any part of Y2038. Millenials will be the management by that point.
Y2k was pre-9/11. Even more rice bowls depend on that threat now, and six of the ten richest counties in the US are in the DC area.
I hope this wasn’t posted to Letterman’s YouTube channel today because Darlene Love died.
Rehearsal for the last Letterman Christmas show. IIRC, it was always the same basic show from 1986 on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGv0-JCLiYc
Mrs. Roger Murtaugh. Another Letterman/Lethal Weapon tie.
On that subject, one thing I’m curious about is why David Sanborn appeared to be MIA during most of the Letterman CBS era. If anyone should have been on stage that night, I figured it would be Sanborn.
Sanborn was present in what I consider to be the best Letterman show music performance setting aside Warren Zevon’s final TV appearance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8o5ELd0TGNE
I think Mr. Ray was talking about engine controllers and such. Can you give an example of such where the date/time is set? I’m not talking about the clock on the dash. Maybe a mechanic here could post?
re Y2K, I wasn’t involved in the COBOL/payroll side. I worked on the power systems side, some FORTRAN and some batch control language and some other stuff. A fair number of problems were found and fixed but it’s unclear whether the lights would have gone out if we’d done nothing – all of the power plants and distribution points had people in the loop and hard overrides for the computer systems.
I don’t know if that’s the case now, what with internet-enabled everything. And I especially don’t know what the situation will be on the run-up to 2038. I do know that I plan to be self-sufficient if everything goes down, just in case.
>> I will be weatherproofing the office complex this afternoon for the hard freeze 18 F predicted for Thursday night.
Hey, somebody forgot to turn up the thermostat to “Global Warming”.
We made a second run to Home Depot yesterday when I realized I hadn’t bought replacement faucet covers for the trashed set I tossed last March.
The local Faux News station has a knack for causing a run on covers every December.
Forecast daytime temps on Friday are back above freezing, however, so I may not have to mess with the outside faucets.
Add in the complication that everyone with a job involving sitting at a computer tries to work from home now, especially on holiday weekends. The real problem in the Texas freeze in 2021 was the double holiday of Lunar New Year and Presidents Day, giving most people in government and at utilities a long weekend which started on Thursday at Noon, before the Sunday night event, extending through the following Monday.
Y2038 will happen roughly ~ 3 AM UTC on 1/19/2038, late-early evening on a Monday, the 18th, in the US, but that day is currently set as the MLK Birthday Federal holiday for the year.
“Ford Raises Price on F-150 Lightning EV Pickup Truck for Third Time in 2022”
https://www.pcmag.com/news/ford-raises-price-on-f-150-lightning-ev-pickup-truck-for-third-time-in
“The Ford F-150 Lightning base model is now 40% more expensive than its original launch price due to rising materials costs and ongoing supply chain issues, Ford says.”
“Ford has increased the price on its popular Ford F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck, upping the base model pricing to $56,000, the third change this year.”
I want to see one on the dealer lot for that price. Ain’t gonna happen, mostly gonna be $80K to $95K MSRP.
Until YouTube reminded me, I forgot Craig Ferguson signed off after 10 years that same night as Letterman’s last Christmas show.
As far as late shows go, I honestly miss Ferguson more, but Letterman was the king until the meds and the mistresses.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bknt00olZ0Q
Geesh, Ferguson had some cool cold opens on his show.
re: Y2K
I was a DOD contractor working on critical command and control systems. It was HUGE concern. We scheduled and flight-followed all of the Air Mobility Command, basically the world’s largest cargo airline. Operations are worldwide, 24 hours, non-stop. A million+ lines of code in FORTRAN, C, C++, Ada, and a small amount of assembler. Also a unique, bespoke database replication scheme that was heavily timestamp based, to the millisecond.
As it happens, the system was built on Digital Equipment Corporation’s VAX/VMS and robust database products, so the native date format was immune to the Y2K problem.
All of our remediation focused on finding anyplace where dates were converted, displayed, or input and we spent months trolling the source code. There were a few places located where programmers had made bad decisions and they were fixed.
USTRANSCOM set up a testing lab, and we had monthly tests of loading our environment, setting the date to 1999-12-31 and watching it roll over.
All told, exactly one display screen, not critical, displayed the date wrong when the event happened. The software engineer who drew the short straw and had to overnight at the command center spent his night helping other contractors debug their systems.
My new truck takes the date from the linked phone. Off the top of my head, the engine management computer might use the date to pop up warnings for expired fluids or overdue service, when it’s a miles/and or/time thing.
GPS uses the current time and date to look up sat positions to make locking on faster.
IDK if there are other nanny/ minder systems that are date dependent.
Diesel engines will shut down if the DEF fluid interval is exceeded, but IDK if that’s miles or engine hours, Don’t know where the OTR truckers’ automated logs get their time from. Don’t know if there are hard coded limits so the drivers CAN’T exceed their driving time.
SCADA systems might use time and date for syncing transmission times, or handshaking. Something (and I can’t remember off the top of my head) won’t go online if your pc’s date is too far out from network time, that might be an issue for IOT devices.
I’m sure there are other ‘unknown unknowns’ too.
n
>> Add in the complication that everyone with a job involving sitting at a computer tries to work from home now, especially on holiday weekends.
One year before Y2K was another event that impacted financial computer systems worldwide, the adoption of the euro as the single currency of the Euro-zone countries. As of 00:00:00 on January 1, 1999, all financial and accounting transaction that involved one of the 11 ‘in’ countries had to be booked/settled in Euros instead of their legacy currencies, based on fixed conversion rates. Adding to the fun was the challenge that the final conversion rates were only set on December 31st.
I managed the conversion effort for our securities movement platforms (mostly COBOL, VSAM and ADABAS) and our design was such that all the conversion rates were in a stand-alone table. This allowed us to test and implement most of our code/DB changes in advance with 1 to 1 conversions used through 11:59:59 and the actual conversion rates used as of 00:00:00.
Everything ran smoothly for our company, and mostly so for the rest of the industry. Turned out to be a good precursor for Y2K the following year, which of course I got to manage as well. I did however, about a week after the Euro conversion had been proved successful, got my boss to put it in writing that I would have “off” (i.e. work from home) on NYE 1999. A select few were also granted that concession but in those days ‘work from home’ generally wasn’t a thing.
>> Y2038 will happen roughly ~ 3 AM UTC on 1/19/2038, late-early evening on a Monday, the 18th, in the US, but that day is currently set as the MLK Birthday Federal holiday for the year.
Doctors-willing, I hope to be around in 15 years to see how this all shakes out.
Who is selling a Lightning for less than six figures? Not around here.
Something is up with the Lightning and Mustang abomination lately. I’ve noticed Ford is slipping those to more fringe reviewers who are EV and/or Ford critics on YouTube and elsewhere, enduring some brutally honest reviews which you would think they’d be trying to avoid at this point.
These are people whom Tony would never let have a look at one of his vehicles.
I gotta wonder if Ford is trying to take the dealers’ premiums out of the selling prices or had a change of heart about kowtowing to the Feds and states on the EV mandates.
The last sales figures I saw on the Mustang EV were 28,000 for the year through October. Granted, not that different from IC Mustangs, but a far cry from the six figures Ford wants to move annually in the near future.
>> My new truck takes the date from the linked phone. Off the top of my head, the engine management computer might use the date to pop up warnings for expired fluids or overdue service, when it’s a miles/and or/time thing.
I would guess that it would be simpler just to have a counter that resets to zero when you clear the warning and adds one every hour and pops the warning when the hour limit is exceeded.
Over The Hedge: Ver-nay
https://www.gocomics.com/overthehedge/2022/12/18
Nope, that is just Verne being weird.
For a “truck” which can tow a 4000-pound trailer about three miles, right?
>> Who is selling a Lightning for less than six figures? Not around here.
I wonder if Chevy is selling the base models of any of their EVs? The base models for 2023 seem to have a decent compliment of safety systems and are interesting at sub-30K pricing. If they are, then the question is are they available at MSRP without any ADM.
Remembering Ted…
So far I have avoided doing plumbing. I’ve been ‘piddle farting around’. Not entirely my fault, as my wife and in-laws spent several hours “cleaning up” after I left last time. I can’t find ANYTHING. There is no rhyme or reason to how they stacked, combined, or grouped stuff either.
n
@Nick
I think he’s done some public self-evaluation recently:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4HwZNwlV4o
and I found these interesting:
Speed Run Through Portland
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBO9XlaYhtI
I’m Losing My Grip
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FX-GSFOvZv8
He’s like most others in that I disagree chapter and verse on some things–he’s got basic misconceptions about wood, and using a knife as a scraper to take the finish off an axe handle would get him slapped off the stool in my shop . But overall some good stuff.
>> Did my pickup, way out in the country outside of Conroe.
Guy had a thing for circuses. There was an honest-to-Crom circus carousel set up in his man cave building. They’ve been having estate sales since spring, every week or two, to clear out and it looks like they just started. Figures, collectibles, circus stuff- the place was overflowing. Garden scale railroad… never built that I could see, and it’s been selling cheap because it was all circus themed. Man cave was only about 70% complete. Guy had time to collect all the stuff, but ran out of time before he could get it set up to show it off.
@nick, are the neighbors at the BOL ready for a carousel?
@Greg, more politics looking to delay the Manhattan (NYFC) congestion-pricing plan.
I feel your pain, plus tools being left out in the garden for days or weeks until I happen to notice them, or being grossly misused (eg, rubber mallet being used to pound metal fence stakes into the ground, destroying the mallet), or being loaned to my wife’s friend without asking me beforehand or telling me after.
>> There is no rhyme or reason to how they stacked, combined, or grouped stuff either.
No rhyme or reason in your logical male brain versus two of three brains that are (no offence) female.
But then again, my wife does the same sometimes. I’ve “learned” to more often put my stuff away to avoid this problem. HWHL
It is definitely a tax on NJ commuters into Manhattan.
When I was fired two years ago, the failed demonstration was new tech designed to be installed on the tunnels’ reversible lanes without new construction of gantries, which the PANYNJ was targeting first. I imagine that even the chuckleheads still left at my previous previous job (BINGO!) may have managed to deploy a system by now -or- PANYNJ was the unnamed major client who walked away after a lot of development effort, noted in the annual report for that year as part of an explanation for a $180 million loss on ~ $600 million revenues.
Of course, Covid provided a lot of cover, like it did at other companies.
I noticed my direct successor on the DC project has an end date with the company in September without a new job noted. Things that make you say “Hmmmm…” Still, Cornell boy, whom management was really into just to have that school name on the diploma. Things must have been bad if his termination was involuntary. I thought he was a safe chucklehead.
All of the Bolts were recalled for battery fire potential. If you can find one on a dealer’s lot I doubt there would be ADM if the F&I manager was sane.
Re Y2K
I wad hired to replace the IT Manager at Orange, Person and Chatham County Area Program (the regional mental health agency in NC). They were at ready for Y2K and did not make their first payroll in January 2000.
They had lots of other problems as well. The wiring closet looked like a rats nest. They did pay for three Netware classes for me while I was there including Netware 5.1 Advanced Administration. As I’m not politically correct I was terminated one day before my six month probation ended.
Gasp! Another illusion shot to heck.
I finally cleared the voicemail on my phone. I went by the Verizon joint to have my password reset. So the new password is 1 + last four digits of your number. Why voicemail needs a password is a mystery. If you have my phone, it’s not locked… you can read what e-mails that are on the server and read txt messages.
Anyway. Twenty messages. That’s the max. Several were butt dials. Several more from a couple of funeral homes from when Mom died. Yeah, two years ago. The rest were in the “who are you anyway?” group which is why I don’t do voicemail.
Dreary day today. A brisk 26f this morning. While the NOAA site said it was 31f at the airport. Made it all the way to 53f.
I have a little pre-seasoned pork loin from HEB. Garlic and pepper. Pretty bland, though. I spread a sheet of plastic wrap out, sprinkled on some Atkins BBQ stuff and some kind of five pepper stuff. Rolled it all around and it’s wrapped and warming up on the counter. Should be good.
@nick, are the neighbors at the BOL ready for a carousel?
– I never saw the carousel or most of the horses listed. They must have sold separately or been held back. I would imagine there is a market for small carousels, about 20-25ft across. There are a lot of little ‘mexican’ circuses touring around Texas. I would have been sorely tempted to bid if it was listed. What a cool thing to own…
n
Finished my dinner. Hungry Man Homestyle Meatloaf. Not bad at all. Enough food when I added a slice of toast with garlic salt. None of their meals are gourmet, all are better than a school lunch. There aren’t any I’ve tried that I wouldn’t eat again. Not a bad option when you are alone and just don’t want to cook.
I ended up doing the icemaker line inside the cabinet. I left extra so I can install it with a boxed valve when the cabinets and walls are out, much later. I installed the hose bib that is accessible from behind the dishwasher. I haven’t connected either of the new hose bibs, not much point until spring. I need to insulate, spray foam the holes, and replace the drywall tomorrow. Then I can install the dishwasher.
I love pex. To install the icemaker line, I just cut the cold water line in the attic, put in a T, and dropped the line into the kitchen. (that part took hours, as cabinets, bulkhead/soffit, outdoor soffit/eves, all needed to be opened, drilled, cut, etc, and then put back.) The plumbing itself was mere minutes and the hardest thing is getting access to work. Definitely have both styles of crimp tool and ring. The bigger tool used the cheaper copper crimp rings, the small tool uses some stainless rings you “pinch”. The small tool is a lot easier to use under cabinets, or in the eves of the attic, but the rings cost more. Well worth it to have the choice. There are joints I just couldn’t have gotten to with the bigger cheaper tool.
n
I should add that there are joints that you may not be able to get the tool to, so have some of the push on “sharkbite” fittings too.
n
Just had another Windows 10 “experience”.
No bigger all-time p.o.s. in the software category could possibly exist, and it’s definitely a contender for all-around.
YMMV, of course, but my overall experiences using Win 10 (and now Win 11) have been just fine. A few minor annoyances, but some quick research gave me an acceptable solution.
MMDV*
My Mileage Definitely Varies
The engine computer does not care about dates. If the service warning appears because of the span of time, it is merely the computer counting days, a time span, not the computer knowing that September 13, 2023 the oil should be changed. The GPS system is separate from the engine computer, and has no interface. The time on my truck display is never set by the GPS even though the GPS knows the time and the time zone. Process control computers do not need the date except to log. Auto computers store an event, not the date and time of the event.
The unit I worked for in the USAF had solved the Y2K problem in 1974. It was necessary to predict retirements 30 years into the future. That was well beyond Y2K. I was well versed in the problems with Y2K. Even at the credit union where I was working before Y2K everything was in place a year before Y2K and fully tested on a separate system.
The auditor was concerned about the network router. We had no way to test without taking down the credit union. Not a viable option. It was difficult to explain to her that the only date in the router was used for logging events. No one really cared if the event date showed up as 1900 rather than 2000. It would be obvious that the date was incorrect. The router did nothing different based on a date. She didn’t believe me.
People were concerned about critical infrastructure failing. Wasn’t going to happen. Most of those systems do not care about the date. Traffic control systems might change light patterns based on dates and times. A traffic light thinking it was Saturday on a Tuesday was not going to be critical.
Systems that were critical had been worked on for a couple of years to solve the issues. So much was known, being changed to resolve the issue, the Y2K flip was going to be a non-event.
I had to explain to people that cars would still continue to operate. They would still be able to pump gas. If their mortgage suddenly showed 100 years past due it would be obvious to a human that there was a problem. People were not going to be foreclosed on their home.
Even some people were scared their coffee maker would no longer make coffee. Their stove would not work, TV kaput, etc. Anything that had a computer was going to fail. People had to put the time in the device so it would start brewing early, a small computer. I again asked these people when the last time they put a date into the coffee maker, stove, microwave, digital clock or their TV. For most I just got a blank stare.
There were a lot of scary tactics promoted by the government. Sound familiar with Covid? Frightened people are easier to control. And there are a lot of stupid and ignorant people in the government who are clueless about technology. Sound familiar with Covid?
I was soundly chastised by many because of my stance on Y2K. Go about their lives normally. Go to sleep on 12/31/1999 and wake up on 1/1/2000 and do things normally.
I had no issues with W10. Even using a scanner. I have had no real issues with W11. Two networked printers, one wireless. I have had two BSODs, once on my Surface, once on my desktop. Both times it was connecting a USB-C memory card reader. Both times Windows rebooted and the device worked fine.
I have three systems. One running W10 and cannot be upgraded to W11. My Surface and desktop both upgraded to W11 without issues.
Maybe I have just been lucky. I haven’t won the lottery so maybe that is a lie.
Sounds like a line from some of the parties I attended in the late ‘60’s.
Y2K; In 1998 and 1999, I was working as a computer teacher and consultant. People would ask me what was going to happen, and I said “Nothing much!” I guess I soothed a lot of anxieties. The REAL Y2K problem was solved in 1970, when 30-year mortgages started choking on amortization schedules beyond 1999. I’m Jewish and a lot of my clients were Jewish, and the only Jewish-related problem that I could envision was Sabbath-compliant elevators. (In Orthodox buildings, such as hotels in Israel, elevators don’t respond to button presses between sunset Friday and sunset Saturday. On the Sabbath, the elevators stop at EVERY floor, continuously, so that Orthodox Jews don’t have to press a button which MIGHT cause a spark, ie, a “fire”, on the Sabbath. That turned out not to be a problem, of course. )
Come the day, the only problem that I saw on 1/1/2000 was on AlGore’s web site, where it displayed the date as “1/1/19100”.
Interesting. I just learned something.
If that is the only problem you found on Al Gore’s website you weren’t looking too hard. Some idiot programmer was incrementing the year and prepending the hard coded century.
I did see a few dates displayed incorrectly on a couple of statements but internally the dates were fine. A human interface problem. Nothing that I know of happening was anything beyond a minor inconvenience.
Even today idiot programmers abound. One of my credit cards had a security code of “000”. Which promptly got rejected by a website stating the number was invalid. Well, why? I had to have a new card issued. The security number is based on the expiration date.
I had a nice fire tonight. Wind was variable and cold, so I ate a lot of smoke. Having the ‘mushroom’ patio heater helps a lot to make it comfortable.
My favorite shortwave program is back on their old frequency although they are still with their new “owner”. They used to be WTWW out of Nashville, now they are RMI (Radio Miami International) out of Okachobie (sp?) Still playing oldies and classics and taking requests, they are back on 5.085mhz.
Sunday nights are my favorite on the lake. Very quiet. Mondays and Monday nights are nice too. Someone must be home from school though as they are driving their loud truck around. Still quieter than home where I can hear the highway noise from a couple of miles away.
No seeing tonight, even though the sky is dark. There is just enough haze or high clouds that I couldn’t see any stars.
I think I’ll have a snack and head to bed.
n
@ken, feel free to share any Hanukkah thoughts, experiences or stories. There is a lot I don’t know, and some of Jewish tradition involves some heavy duty prepping (like the ‘living in a tent in the wilderness’ thing that I just became aware of this year, thru of all things, a fire and brimstone preacher on shortwave talking about it, and how we could all learn from it.) The dietary restrictions and cleanliness make a lot of sense in a pre-refrigeration culture too.
It would be interesting to see any religious aspects related to prepping as well as the cultural aspects.
nick
First saw a “Sabbath elevator” in the Mount Sinai Hospital here in Toronto. It is clearly marked as such.
We had orthodox neighbours when we liver in North Toronto (Bathurst & Wilson) in the ’50s. They would ask my brothers to turn things on or off on the Sabbath.
Happy to do so, Nick. Hanukkah is a minor Jewish holiday, blown all out of proportion by the fact that it occurs somewhere near Christmas in the calendar. The major holidays are Passover in the spring, and the “High Holidays” of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, in the late summer.
Hanukkah commemorates the victory of the Maccabees over the Assyrian Greeks, and chased them out of Israel. When Alexander the Great died without an heir, his empire was split into three segments, and the Assyrian Greeks ruled over that third of Alexander’s empire. As one might expect, each segment was at war with the other two, so the Maccabees were at best a minor annoyance. Still, Jews were free of external threats, until the Romans showed up a couple of hundred years later.
During the Assyrian occupation, the Assyrian soldiers used the Second Temple as a stable for pigs, rendering it unclean for daily use. As a Jewish Temple, the priests burned an “eternal flame”, or ner tamid, an oil lamp filled with ritually purified olive oil. After the Maccabees cleaned out the Temple, they discovered a small vessel of oil, but only enough to burn the lamp for one day. The problem was that it would take EIGHT days to purify fresh oil.
My wife has a T-shirt that says “Imagine that your cell phone was at 10% power, but it lasted for eight days. Now you understand Hanukkah.” The Maccabees lit the lamp, and that small vessel of oil lasted for eight days, until fresh oil could be purified. That was the miracle of Hanukkah. The holiday lasts for eight days; most Jewish holidays do.
And so the Hanukkah festivities all involve food cooked in oil. Latkes, potato pancakes, fried in oil. Sufganiyot, which we know as “jelly donuts”, are available in Israel only during Hanukkah. Fried in oil, of course. One of the most popular “fried in oil” foods in America is fried chicken. So this afternoon, we got jelly donuts from Krispy Kreme and Kentucky Fried Chicken, and my wife fried up fresh latkes. It doesn’t get much better.
The Jewish day begins at sunset, so Hanukkah began at sunset today. As you drive around for the next week, look around at houses that don’t have Christmas decorations, and see if you can find a Hanukkah menorah; we lit one candle tonight, and tomorrow at sunset, we’ll light two, adding one each day until all eight are illuminated. Back in California years ago, our Christian neighbors used to give us a good-natured kidding that we didn’t have any Christmas lights; I said, “OK, we’ll get a 5-foot tall electric menorah for the front yard.” So we did, and it’s now out in the front yard here in San Antonio. But I’ve got great neighbors here as well.
>> Even some people were scared their coffee maker would no longer make coffee. Their stove would not work, TV kaput, etc. Anything that had a computer was going to fail. People had to put the time in the device so it would start brewing early, a small computer. I again asked these people when the last time they put a date into the coffee maker, stove, microwave, digital clock or their TV. For most I just got a blank stare.
If I can figure out how to get past the flashing 00:00 on my Sony Betamax VCR I’ll let you know if it asks for a date.
>> (In Orthodox buildings, such as hotels in Israel, elevators don’t respond to button presses between sunset Friday and sunset Saturday. On the Sabbath, the elevators stop at EVERY floor, continuously, so that Orthodox Jews don’t have to press a button which MIGHT cause a spark, ie, a “fire”, on the Sabbath. That turned out not to be a problem, of course. )
@Ken, I thought the need for Sabbath elevators was that pressing the buttons was ‘work’ which was not allowed to be done during the Sabbath (God’s day of rest).
Orthodox Jews make many accommodations so as to not do “work” on Shabbos, from leaving lights on (with tape covering the switch for absent-minded children) to leaving a flame burning on a gas stove for cooking. One of the most interesting is the Eruv, a wire (nowadays typically nylon fishing line) strung around a neighborhood, from tree to tree or utility pole to utility pole in one continuous loop. All the houses within the loop are considered to be connected private spaces. The rules (in the Talmud) prohibit carrying items such as house keys or umbrellas or pushing a baby carriage from private to public spaces on the Sabbath so the Eruv provides a low-tech work-around for connecting private spaces.
A religion filled with many interesting and sometimes obscure practices. And a Happy Hannukah to all. (Oh, and don’t ask how many ways there are to ‘spell’ Hannukah in English!)
>> It would be interesting to see any religious aspects related to prepping as well as the cultural aspects.
Matzo (primarily eaten during Passover) is the ultimate prep food – mix some flour with water, form the dough into thin sheets and bake on hot flat rocks in the desert, without first allowing the dough to rise. And prick holes in any bubbles that appear as those could result in fermentation (leavening). No more than 18 minutes are allowed from when water touches the flour until the sheets are in the oven, or until they’re fully baked, depending on which ‘rules’ you’re following. The 18 minutes derive from the rush the Israelites were in when fleeing the Egyptian Pharaoh across the desert. The finished matzos are eaten as is as crackers and also ground up to make matzo meal which is used to make matzo balls for soup and as a flour and corn meal substitute.
Yup, definitely. When you’re young, you feel like you have all the time in the world. Getting older, well, not so much.
Of course, it could also be that the guy really enjoyed the collecting and imagining what could be. Actually doing the work, maybe not so much.
I find myself turning into an anti-collector – I get rid of stuff more and more. Moving helped a lot, but we still moved too much stuff. There are still a few boxes sitting around from the move, so whatever is in them in clearly unimportant.
After having had my dream of an entire room filled with books (for 20 years, at the last house), the books have been reduced to two shelf units, sitting across from my fitness equipment. I enjoy looking at them, but I read almost entirely on a Kindle nowadays. I just wish browsing books on the Kindle, looking for something to re-read, was half as pleasurable as looking at those shelves.
Honestly, it’s difficult to take practices like that seriously. They cannot “work” to flip a switch, but they have no problem making use of the light – which means other people working somewhere in a power plant. They cannot turn a knob to start their stove, but they can set a pot of water on it. Of course, all religions have practices that look loony from the outside.
Last post!
Or was it?
Are you up late? Or early?
I was up early – the time-zones work in my favour, but I seem to be coming late to this last-post party…
We had rain this morning onto frozen ground. The roads promptly turned into sheets of black ice. I felt particularly sorry for the foot-procession of mourners at a funeral passing the house. Hard to maintain one’s dignity while slipping and sliding. I think things have now thawed enough underfoot that I can safely attempt a trip to the post office and the pharmacy.